I LIBRARY OF CONaRESS. 

I ^^e/^' S-2 : 



! UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



AN 

/ 



APOLOGY 



/ 

CONFORMING 

I 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 

CONTAINED IN 

A SERIES OF LETTERS 

ADDRESSED TO THE 

RIGHT REV. BENJAMIN T. ONDERDONK. D. D. 

BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW-YORK. 



BY THOMAS S. BRITTAN. 



Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you 
a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and feat.''^ 

St. Peter. 



PUJULISHED BY SwbRDS, STANFORD'', AND CO. 
No. 152 Broadway. 



1633. 




MEW-YORK : 
PPvlNTES) BY EDWARD J. SWORDS, 

No. 8 Thames-Street. 



TO 

THE RIGHT REVEREND 

BENJAMIN T. ONDERDONK, D. D. 

BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OP NEW-YORK, 

THIS VOLUME, 

CONSISTING OF LETTERS, FIRST ADDRESSED TO HIM^ 
IS NOW, ST HII P£EMI9S10?r^ 

DEDICATED, 

WITH EVERY SENTIMBNT OW IISTEBM AN'D flF^^PR^f § 

BY HIS OBLIGED, 
OBEDIENT. 

HVMBLE SERVANT^ 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER, 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

The great English noralist, as he has been en- 
titled, (Dr. Johnson,) lays down, in one of his 
essays, the following moral axioms: — That as 
all ©rror is meanness, it is incumbent on every 
man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as 
soon as he discovers it, without fearing any cen- 
sure so much as that of his own mind. As justice 
requires that all injuries should be repaired, it is 
the duty of him who has seduced others by bad 
practices or false notions, to endeavour that such 
as have adopted his errors, should know his re- 
tractation ; and that those who have learned vice 
by his example, should by his example also be 
taught amendment." 

These sentiments perfectly accord with the 
dictates of holy writ, which require genuine peni- 
tents to "bring forth fruits meet for repentance. 
They seem to have been the principles by which 
the greatest exemplars of piety have always been 
influenced, when, after their wanderings, they 
were restored to their right minds. And especi- 
ally were they illustrated by the conduct of the 

1* 



6 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



great apostle of the Gentiles, who, after his con- 
version to the faith, manifested such zeal as to 
call forth the admiring testimony of his fellow- 
Christians. He which persecuted us in times past, 
now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed 

Repentance then, is not only a generous, but a 
magnanimous grace ; it is a temper inferior only 
to innocency itself. Indeed it requires greater 
courage to acknowledge an error once indulged 
in, than altogether to have avoided it. It is 
virtue so placed, as sometimes to yield more 
glory to God than even unoffending excellency 
could have done — it aims at repairing the dis- 
honours done to the divine will — it pays a volun- 
tary homage .to the obedience of the wise and the 
good— it acknowledges the malignity and evil of 
transgression, and incites, in spite of every ob- 
stacle and every difficulty which the pride of our 
own hearts, or the misconduct of others, might 
present, to make an open and artless confession 
of our folly, and to aim at reclaiming those who 
may still be wandering. 

Under the influence of these views, I sit down 
to make a voluntary renunciation of the errors 
into which I have fallen, and to do homage to the 
sacred cause of Truth. Conscious that after 
such an avowal, I have yet sufficient dignity 
remaining to support my character; and feeling 
anxious that others may be warned against the 
mistaken notions by which I have been deceived, 
I would imitate the very best and wisest of men, 
in frankly and ingenuously acknowledging that I 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



7 



have been misguided ; and that the deception has 
regarded a subject of vital importance, being no 
less than the mode of government authoritatively- 
enjoined upon the holy CathoUc Church," the 
kingdom upon earth of our blessed Redeemer. 

It was my lot to have been educated amongst 
that class of dissenters who entitle themselves 
Independants," or Congregationalists." At 
a very early age my mind had imbibed the 
strongest and most obnoxious prejudices against 
Episcopacy, which, as I advanced in years, be- 
came more deeply rooted. I had been accustomed 
to hear tales of the haughty temper — the bitter 
spirit — the persecuting disposition of the Anglican 
Church — to hear of the gross ignorance in spiritual 
things, and of the ungodly lives of her clergy; so 
that I could not, in my mind, dissociate the ideas 
of Episcopacy from those of heresy and sacrile- 
gious ambition. I had learned to regard the 
Established Church as the beast in the Apoca- 
lypse, of which it is said, it " had horns like a lamb^ 
hut it spake like a dragon.^^ I regarded it as a 
system of spiritual tyranny only — an engine of 
state policy, by which the tools of party were to 
be rewarded; in fine as an iron rod in the hands 
of bigotry, by which it attempted to crush and 
destroy all who had the honesty or the courage to 
think for themselves. 

This prejudice, by a natural consequence, 
(strange as to some it may appear,) extended 
itself to its ritual, its ceremonies, and even its 
sanctuaries ; these were often the objects of my 



8 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



ridicule and derision. The official garments of 
its clergy, the formulary of its devotions, and 
even its most solemn observances, were regarded 
as worse than unmeaning — as partaking of the 
nature of an impious mockery of the Almightf . 
I looked upon its sacred edifices with much of the 
same class of feelings with which I should have 
regarded a Pagan temple; and though, in my 
boyhood, curiosity led me sometimes to visit them, 
that I might gaze upon their Gothic architecture, 
admire their painted windows, and feel what was 
imposing in their structure, whose dim religious 
light" rendered them so suitable to aid devotion ; 
yet I always felt, as if by so doing, I had con- 
tracted a sort of guilt, that I had been treading 
upon forbidden ground. 

These sentiments continued, till in my twentieth 
year I had become a student preparing for the 
office of the ministry. During the first year of 
this my novitiate, I went with several of my com- 
peers to witness the ordination of a young friend 
over a Congregational church in London. After 
the charge had been delivered by one minister to 
the pastor, a second minister (as is the custom) 
addressed a charge to the people. In the course 
of his sermon he admonished them of the evils of 
division — lamented the numerous quarrels and 
separations constantly occurring in their churches 
-—stating that " such events gave too much ap- 
pearance of reason for the observation of an old 
bishop, who had said of the Dissenters, that ^ Divi^ 
sion is their sin, and division is their punishment.' " 



INTRODTJCTORY LETTER. 



9 



This expression struck me with peculiar force. 
I looked around me, and saw that these churches 
were every where split into parties and factions. 
Subsequent observation has brought further con- 
firmation on the point. Every where the ministers 
of that denomination lament the fact ; no where is 
there a congregation of them for any considerable 
time in a state of peace. Turbulent spirits are 
every where struggling for the mastery, and 
throwing societies into a state of collision and 
confusion. The only exceptions are those in 
which the pastor, either by the weight of his 
property, or the skilfulness of his policy, can 
exercise despotic power. Discipline cannot be 
maintained. Few of these churches persevere 
for any considerable period in the doctrines of 
their founders. Multitudes have departed from 
the most rigid Calvinism, and gone over into 
Socinianism. Their own histories afford the 
strongest proof of this assertion, whilst the attempt 
recorded in the newspapers of a meeting of Con- 
gregational ministers in the month of May last, 
in London, to form what they called a Congre- 
gational Union, or, in other words, a sort of Pres- 
byterial government among themselves, affords 
an incontrovertible evidence of this truth to every 
reflecting mind. 

Among this class of dissenters I was ordained* 
In the course, however, of my ministry, I was 
brought into contact with some clergymen of the 
Established Church. I found them to be men 
not only of decided but of exalted piety. By in- 



10 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



tercourse with ihem, my antipathies were softened 
— my prejudices were gradually removed — my 
mind was rendered pervious to truth, and I be- 
came convinced that Episcopacy was not the 
horrid creature I had fancied it to be ; nay, that 
a moderate Episcopacy carried with it all the 
marks of Apostolicity ; and I learned that a 
Church existed in America truly Episcopal, but 
whose Episcopacy was unfettered by any of those 
trammels which its union with the State had 
fastened upon the Church of England. 

I now find that it was not the true use, but the 
shameful abuse of Episcopacy, that formerly ex- 
cited my disgust ; that this excellent institution, 
like every other good thing, may be perverted; 
that as the manna which was angels' food became, 
by employing it contrary to the divine direction, 
offensively putrescent ; that as the brazen serpent, 
by whose sight the Israelites were healed, had by 
superstition become converted into an object of 
idolatry ; that as even the very grace of God had 
been by bad men turned into licentiousness ; so 
Episcopacy, the ordinance of heaven, had been by 
some perverted from its legitimate use, to serve 
the purposes of avarice and ambition. But in 
this country I find it depurated from whatever of 
extraneous additions, or ofiensive appendage, it 
may have unhappily contracted in other lands. 
I think it to be the " simplicity that is in Christ 
Jesus. '^'^ 

Having thus introduced the subject, and fearing 
it might savour somewhat of egotism to trace the 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



11 



whole process of mind by which my present con- 
victions have been evolved upon me, allow me to 
drop, as much as possible, the important pronoun 
/, and to lay before you, with as much succinctness 
as possible, the reasons which have enforced my 
decision. 

But before I do this, it may not be amiss to say, 
that since my residence in this land, I have care- 
fully examined the best writers of whom she can 
boast on the side of Presbyterianism, and that I 
find them utterly unsatisfactory. The review of 
the Essays on Episcopacy," whilst discovering the 
hand of a master, and the mind of a genius, has 
done nothing whatever tow^ard shaking my con- 
viction, that prelacy was established by our Lord 
himself. This work has in it too much of the 

esprit de corps^^^ and in it the author has often 
indulged in that " hadiiiage^'^ which is unbefitting 
so solemn and important a subject. He seems, 
from the whole tenour of his composition, to be 
saying to his readers, Risum teneatis amici." 
He has evidently forgotten a maxim w^hich he 
laid dov/n in one of his sermons, when he spoke 
of the treatment which St. Paul met with from 
«ome of the Athenians ; and of which he says, 
" some mocked a short method of refuting the 
Gospel, and likely, from its convenience, to con- 
tinue in favour and fashion." 

Ridicule is no test of truth: there is nothing 
we may not make ridiculous by allowing to fancy 
an unbridled license: it is the great weapon of 
infidelity, and was recommended by that arch 



13 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



deceiver Voltaire, as the best means of opposing 
Christianity. Render" says he in his letters to 
D'Alembert, these pedants (the clergy,) as 
enormously ridiculous as you can. Ridicule is 
every thing. It is the strongest of all weapons. 
A hon mot is as good a thing as a good book.'* 
In the same spirit, Shaftesbury advises as the 
best means of opposing Christianity, to employ 

Bart'lemy fair* drollery against it." 

Still less was I pleased with the letters of a 
learned Presbyterian professor on the same side 
of the question. They appeared to me to be 
written so ungraciously— to manifest such an 
overweening conceit of self — to be characterized 
with such an air of pedantry — to enforce the 
" dicta" of their author with such an ex cathedra 
tone — to abound w^ith so many subterfuges — to 
present such mutilated, garbled quotations from 
the Fathers — in a word, to be so replete with 
Jesuitical Jinesse,'^^ that I could not but feel dis- 
gust at the exhibition. Whatever may be the 
state of my head, I trust I have an honest heart ; 
I was early taught to despise duphcity, and I 
hope I almost instinctively revolt from it ; but 
when I found this author, because it would serve 
his turn against Episcopahans, denouncing the 
shorter Epistles of Ignatius as spurious produc- 
tions ; and, at the same time, in another book 
which lay before me, found that the same man, 
because it would serve his purpose against the 



• Bartholomew Fair. 



INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



13 



Unitarians, vindicating the very same Epistles of 
Ignatius as genuine ; I say, when I saw this, I 
felt that he could hardly claim my confidence; 
I could not repress the risings of honest indigna- 
tion. If this be not verifying the old fable of 
blowing hot and cold with the same mouth, what 
is? I was convinced that whatever powers of 
reasoning he might possess, he was deficient in 
that candour and consistency which would alone 
command my respect ; that however I might view 
him as a subtle and wily sophist, I ought not to 
regard him as a sound and honest reasoner. 

Suppose, I thought, that a witness in a court 
of judicature should thus act; suppose such an 
one, when his own interest was in some measure 
concerned, should give evidence that a certain 
document set up by the other party was unworthy 
of credit ; and suppose that at an after period, 
when he wished to set at nought a diflferent anta- 
gonist, against whom the aforesaid document 
bore, that in such case he should give evidence 
that the document ought to be accredited, what 
would be the feelings expressed by the court at 
the discovery of his contradictory testimony? * * 

In my next I shall enter upon the reasons which 
convince me of the legitimacy and divine appoint- 
ment of Episcopacy. 



2 



LETTER !!• 



EPISCOPACY CONSIDERED ON THE GROUND OF 
EXPEDIENCY. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

Among the numerous reasons which have enforced 
conviction upon my mind in this important sub- 
ject, the following may be adduced ; the least and 
lowest arguments being placed first, as is natural 
in the order of distribution* 

Expediency may be considered as affording 
presumptive evidence. 

Whilst many Dissenters^ contend that the plat- 
form of their Church government is accurately 
laid down in the writings of the New Testament, 
a very large number of them insist that no form 
of Church government is at all prescribed therein ; 

but that THE FOUR FOLLOWING ARE THE ONLY 

* The writer takes this occasion, once for all, to state, that in the 
use of this term, it is not his intention to offend. He has learned, 
since his arrival in this country, that here the application of the 
word to those who differ from the Episcopal Church is objected to. 
He has naturally adopted a mode of speech familiar_ to him from 
long habit, and has deemed it best in these letters to retain it, as 
expressing in one word what might otherwise require some circum- 
•uoptidoj 



EPISCOPACY CONSIDERED, &C. 



15 



RULES PRESENTED IN HOLY SCRIPTURE UPON 

THAT POINT, viz. — Let all things he done decently 
and in order.'''' Let all things be done to edify- 
e^zg-." ^' Let all things he done ivith charity y And, 

Do all things without murmuring. '^'^ Thus they 
make, in fact, expediency to be the basis of all 
Church government. And frequently do they 
assert, that as God has presented no particular 
mode of government to the nations of the earth, 
but has left them to institute such as may seem 
to their wisdom most fitting, so neither has he 
appointed any special form of government in his 
Church, but that he has left it to Christians 
to make such regulations as may accord with 
their climates, and habits, and peculiar circum- 
stances; hence, whilst among all the Congrega- 
tional churches there are some points of resem- 
blance, there are also other points of dissimilarity. 
Uniformity is regarded as non-essential. 

Admitting then, for the sake of argument, the 
proposition, " That expediency is the basis of 
Church government," will not Episcopacy derive 
from it povv^erful support ? All the nations of 
mankind, however free their government may 
have been ; even those republicks which have 
manifested the greatest jealousy of their liberties, 
have agreed that power must be lodged some- 
where — that officers must be appointed as the 
guardians of their fellow-citizens, the judges and 
expositors of their laws, the executors of their 
decrees, the presidents of their assemblies — that 
these should be armed with authority, that they 



16 



EPISCOPACY CONSIDERED 



might be a terror to evil doers ^ and a praise to 
them that do welL''^ It matters not that they have 
guarded well these powers, and accurately de- 
fined their limits, lest they should be abused. 
The very fact of these limitations shows the con- 
viction entertained of their importance; that they 
supposed a body politic must have a head- 
that all its members could not be in a state of 
perfect parity — that the weight of government 
could not wiih safety be reposed upon the v/eak 
and ignorant, but upon the wise and the influen- 
tial — that necessity required for the public weal 
different grades in society, and various officers 
invested with superiority and command. Hence 
the archons at Athens, the senators, the trium- 
vh'i, the decemviri, the consuls at Rome, the 
senators and the doge at Venice, and not to 
mention others, the congress, the president, vice- 
president, and various functionaries of these 
United States. 

We have then a lesson of wisdom gathered 
from the united experience of all ages, ancient 
and modern, far and near, that society must have 
laws, that laws require officers, and that officers 
must be invested with authority and power ; 
without these all will be anarchy ; disorder and 
confusion will universally obtain ; the wicked and 
mighty will riot in tyranny, and will prowl like 
beasts of prey upon their fellow-men. It is also 
universally admitted, that all men are not fitted 
to rule — that all are not qualified for judging; 
but that each man must have his distinct and 



ON THE GROUND OF EXPEDIENCY. 



17 



separate work, to which his talents are adapted : 
the place for the man, and the man for the place. 
Thus the fabrick of society is cemented and 
strengthened throughout all its parts ; harmony, 
order, and happiness are established universally. 

And must it be otherwise in the Church ? Is 
not this society composed of beings differing in 
almost endless variety from each other? Are all 
fit to minister therein ? Are all fit to rule? Are 
all fit to discharge the great official duties which 
such a community requires, or to enforce the laws 
by which order amongst them should be maintain- 
ed ? There must be some, then, to fill stations of 
greater importance than others, who shall attend 
to the administration of the laws by which it is 
governed, and who, possessing ability, shall also 
be invested with authority to exercise salutary 
discipline. Nor can this be done unless there be 
different grades and stations, the holders of which 
shall have it in charge to fulfil these several and 
important functions. 

Does Presbytery effect this ? An appeal to its 
disjointed state, its conflicting opinions, the anti- 
pathies and animosities of its members, will give 
the answer. It is the lamentation of the old men, 
that " men of corrupt minds" have entered in 
amongst them; that they who professed at their 
ordination to embrace the standards of their faith, 
teach doctrines utterly opposed to these standards ; 
that these men are deluging the Church with a 
flood of novelties, which they have no power to 
repel or restrain ; in fine, they admit that there 

2* 



18 



EPISCOPACY CONSIDERED 



is no authority amongst them to exercise disci- 
pline, or to enforce their laws. Whatever the 
Presbyterian Church in this country may once 
have been, it now presents to the eye of a calm 
observer — we speak it not with exultation, but 
regret — nothing but a confused mass of discordant 
elements, in a state of dreadful collision, like 
the primitive chaos ; (Tohu Bohu.) " Every man 
doesi what is right in the sight of his own eyes^ 
Many are striving daily to advance some new 
doctrine, whilst the stranger and more absurd it 
is, the more popular is it likely to become. Its 
ceremonies, government, order, where are they? 
Alas ! in Presbytery they are no where to be 
found; as the record of the last General Assembly 
in this country mournfully evinces. 

Is the case better with the Congregationalists? 
Let their histories decide. From the days of 
Brown and Robinson, their first founders, down 
to the present hour, their churches have ever been 
the arena of discord. Like the winds seen by the 
prophet in vision, which strove upon the sea, and 
gave birth to hideous monsters ; so the contend- 
ing elements of their passions have, from these 
troubled waters, called forth heresies the most 
gigantic and frightful to desolate the globe. Wit- 
ness the Socinianism of the western part of Eng- 
land, as recorded by Bogue and Bennet, the 
historians of Congregationalism ; and of Massa- 
chusetts, as exhibited to our own eyes; not to 
say any thing of the horrible and frantic excesses 
of the In lependents and Anabaptists of Munster, 



ON THE GROUND OP EXPEDIENCY. 



19 



as recorded in every ecclesiastical history of their 
times — it is "confusion, worse confounded;" their 
churches resemble any thing rather than the 
Church of Christ. 

Abstract argument is however rendered unne- 
cessary, by the existence of fact. There is one 
fact which, however anomalous it may appear, 
cannot be contravened, and which speaks upon 
this subject more than a thousand arguments. 
The London Missionary Society, which, whilst it 
professes a truly Catholic spirit, and enlists all 
classes in the number of its contributors, is in 
truth the great Missionary Society of the Congre- 
gationalists, to which they all belong, and which 
they claim as " our Society.'^ This Society, which 
is governed by a committee in London, of whom 
by far the largest proportion is Congregationalists, 
who, to all intents and purposes, are its prime 
movers — this Society, after serious deliberation, 
sent out, about sixteen years ago, a minister of 
high standing and talent in their connexion, (whom 
they prevailed upon to resign his charge in Aber- 
deen for that purpose,) to take the superintendence 
of their missions in Africa, and invested him with 
power as their representative, to overlook and 
control their missionaries in that quarter. Ac- 
counts of this appointment, and of his success, 
may be seen in their printed annual reports, and 
their quarterly chronicles, in which they cail him 

The Superintendent of the Society's Missions 
in Africa." 

But there is one part of this subject of which 



so 



EPISCOPACY CONSIDERED 



they have made little or no mention. It is this* 
Some of the churches previously settled at the 
Cape, and then in connexion with the London 
Missionary Society, objected to this appointment, 
as being contrary to their characters as Congre- 
gational churches — an invasion of their indepen- 
dent rights. They refused to submit to this de- 
legated authority. They sent home to the Society 
remonstrances, disclaiming their right to appoint 
over them a Bishop." At length Dr. Thorn, 
one of their missionaries, and pastor of the Dutch 
church at the Cape, was sent to England for the 
express purpose of appealing against what some 
of the churches by whom he was commissioned 
considered a gross violation of their rights; but 
he appealed in vain. During the stay of Dr. 
Thorn in London, he related to the writer hereof 
the fact, with strong expressions of indignation. 
The superintendent was, however, continued, 
and the remonstrant churches seceded ; in conse- 
quence, Dr. Thorn, of whom mention, about 
twenty years since, was made in all the Society's 
reports, and of whom, in almost every month's 
Evangelical Magazine," some account was 
given — -Dr. Thorn's name is now scarcely, if ever 
mentioned. 

Thus have the Congregationalists, by their ac- 
tions, and " actions speak louder than words," in 
establishing a superintendent, (or in other words, 
a bishop, for it is one and the same thing,) over 
their missionary churches, announced unto the 
world, that, in their opinion, Episcopacy, at least 



ON THE GROUND OP EXPEDIENCY. 21 

in that quarter, is by far the most expedient mode 
of Church government. 

Upon this point an ingenuous mind will ask no 
further proof. 



LETTER III. 



EPISCOPACY SANCTIONED BY THE INSTITUTIONS 
OF JUDAISM. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

The institutions of Judaism tend still more 
strongly to support the claims of Episcopacy. 

The whole of the Levitical economy was insti- 
tuted by God himself. Its appointment was at- 
tended by the most awful and august solemnities 
which could impress the minds of the Israelites 
with a sense of its weight and importance, and 
which could call forth towards it their reverence 
and obedience. There was nothing in it, how- 
ever minute, but was prescribed by the Most 
High himself; and lest any addition, of whatever 
kind, might be made to it, or any subtraction be 
made from it, Moses was frequently reminded of 
the necessity of adhering to the model which had 
been exhibited to him on the top of the Mount 
Sinai; he had it repeatedly enjoined upon him, 

See that thou do all things aeeordiiig to the pat- 
tern shown thee in the mount. '^'^ 

This dispensation, then, was the product of 
divine wisdom, upon which the Most High had 



EPISCOPACY SANCTIONED, dcC. 



23 



lavished much skill, and power, and glory, be- 
cause he designed it to be the type or picture of 

heavenly things ^ The laic was a shadow of 
good things to come.^^ The whole system of sa- 
crificature in the Mosaic Church — her priests, 
victims, laws, and government, all were typical; 
but of what ? no where is she said to be a type 
only of the present dispensation, of the New 
Testament ; but, in the language of St. Paul, to 
have been aii example and shadoio of heavenly 
things;^'' "patterns of things in the heavens f'^ 
" the heavens^ into which Christ himself has en- 
tered^ to appear in the presence of God for us.'^^ 

In this Church Jehovah instituted a priesthood, 
consisting of three gradations of ministers, viz. 
the Levites, or ordinary priests, whose office it 
was to attend to the usual work in the outer 
court of the tabernacle. Over these presided a 
higher grade of priests, whose duty it was to 
superintend the Levites, to burn incense in the 
holy place, and to offer, upon the altar in that 
court, the shew-bread: these were termed the 
" chief priests." Over these again presided the 
" high priest," whose office it w^as to superintend 
the whole priesthood, who only could perform 
some functions peculiar to his rank and office, 
and who, once a year, might enter alone into the 
" holy of holies." Thus in this Church, divinely 
organized, were three different grades of minis- 
ters, each one rising above the other. 

It has become customary with many writers, 
(for what reason does not appear,) to set the Old 



24 



EPISCOPACY SANCTIONED BY THE 



Testament Churches, and those of the New, in 
direct opposition to each other. These persons 
forget, that as the New Testament is the conti- 
nuation, the commentary, the illustration of the 
Old; so also the latter Church bears the same 
relation to the former. Both Churches have the 
same Founder, the same object of faith, the same 
hope presented to their view, and were both in- 
stituted with the same design. The dispensa- 
tions, indeed, are changed, but Christianity was 
the religion of the Jewish as much as it is of the 
Apostolic Church. This is evident from vari- 
ous grounds, but to enter into any detail of these 
is needless, since we have the testimony, upon 
the point, of an inspired apostle, who tells us that 

Christ was the end of the laio for righteousness to 
every one that helievethf'^ that to him gave all 
the prophets idtnessf'^ that "Moses counted the 
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures 
of Egypt that the Israelites in the wilderness 
did, equally with us, " drinh of the same spiritual 
rock which folloi€ed them, and that rock was Christ.''' 

Wherein then lies the difference between the 
two Churches ? St. Paul tells us, it is that " life 
and immortality are made clear hy the GospeV^ 
" We are not come iinto Mount Sinai, but unto 
Mount Zion.^^ " We have not received the spirit 
of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adop- 
tion, crying, Abba, Father.^^ That is, the Jewish 
Church had respect to a Messiah who was to 
come, God to be made manifest in the flesh: 
the New Testament Church regards the Mes- 



INSTITUTIONS OF JUDAISM. 



26 



siah as already come, God as already incarnated. 
The Jews looked forward for an atonement to 
be afterwards offered up and presented to God: 
the New Testament Church looks back upon the 
sacrifice as already presented and appeariiig in 
the presence of God'' for them. The former 
Church was in a state of infancy: the latter is 
farther advanced towards maturity. The one 
lived in the darkness of the night when Pagan 
idolatry overspread the world, being " as a light 
shining in a dark place:'' the other lives in the 
twilight, of which it is said, the night is far 
spent ^ the day is at hand^" and on whom the 
bright and morning star, the precursor of perfect 
day, has arisen. Thus the only change in the 
dispensation relates to the difference between a 
Messiah about to come, and a Messiah actually 
arrived; between the spirit of bondage which 
characterized the former, and the Spirit of free- 
dom and adoption v/hich designates the latter 
believers. 

The Church, then, is still one, though existing 
under different dispensations. The incarnation, 
sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, 
and glorification of Christ are past ; as such they 
are expressed in the ordinances of the New 
Testament Church; but they were expressed as 
future in the Jewish Church. Are not, also, all 
the self-same things set before our view in one 
dispensation as in the other ? If the Jews were 
to enter into the tabernacle by washing in the 
laver which stood at its entrance, and exhibited 

3 



EPISCOPACY SANCTIONED BY THE 



their faith in the sacrifice offered on the altar; so 
Christians enter into the Church by the washing 
of regeneration, and profess their faith also in 
the blood of the atonement. If, after these en- 
gagements, the Jew might enter into the holy 
place, feasting there, in the presence of God, 
upon the sacrifice, and rejoicing in the light of 
the golden candlestick; so Christians feed in 
the sanctuary upon their sacrifice, and enjoy the 
light of divine revelation. If, in fine, the Jew, 
by Aaron's entrance within the vail, was taught 
to look for a glorious immortality in an unseen 
world; so Christians, by the entrance of their 
Saviour into heaven, are taught to look for a 
new heaven and a new earth; and that '^tmto 
them that look for him shall he appear the secorid 
time without sin unto sahationy 

The. constitution and design of both Churches 
are evidently, then, the same; both being modi- 
fications of a Church militant; both destined to 
terminate in one which is triumphant. Both were 
designed to be typical, to figure forth, to repre- 
sent one and the self-same object, viz. the new 
Jerusalem from above, which is the mother of us 
alV This latter Church, as it is not yet com- 
pleted, is now invisible; but it will be the ever- 
lasting state of the kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour. Prophets and apostles unite in bearing 
witness to her as about to be established, when 
the present dispensation of things shall have 
passed away. But of her, both the Jewish and 
Christian Churches were patterns or figures. The 



INSTITUTIONS OF JUDAISM. 



27 



New Testament Church is that which Christ by. 
the apostles established; and being visible, is a 
type of that which at present is invisible. Under 
both Testaments, therefore, the two Churches 
are one in constitution and design. Their points 
of resemblance are, that both are visible ; both 
lead the mind to the anticipation of the future 
state; both are schools in which the children of 
God are nursed and trained up into a meetness 
for their everlasting inheritance. Both must 
have temporal laws, sensible rites, ceremonies, 
or ordinances ; both must have office-bearers, 
discipline, rules of order and worship. In all 
these respects there is a perfect correspondence 
between them. 

Surely, then, if both Churches are the same in 
the object of their worship, sacrifices. Mediator, 
promises, and sanctuary, — they must be the same 
in the design of their priesthood, which is typical 
also. To argue that the platform of the Chris- 
tian Church is to be found, not in the tabernacle 
or temple, but in the synagogue, is to reject the 
appointments of God for those of men; it is to 
prefer the inventions of the fallible creature be- 
fore the institutions of the infallible God ; it is to 
blot out one part of the constitution of heaven 
itself, and to approve of the suggestions of carnal 
reason, rather than the dictates of divine wisdom 
— a conduct, to say the least of it, to the last de- 
gree erroneous. 

When, then, the abrogation of the Levitical 
economy, and the introduction of the Christian 



28 



EPISCOPACY SAIVCTIONED, &/C. 



dispensation took place, what can be more rea- 
sonable than that the inspired apostles, under 
the direction of the Holy Ghost, should take, as 
the rule of their Church ministry and govern- 
ment, the very same which had been by God 
himself prescribed to Moses ? Every principle of 
reason would dictate that they should do so; and 
that this was the case, may be evinced, as will 
hereafter appear, from the records of the Scrip- 
tures, and from the testimony of the Fathers. 



LETTER IV. 



TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS AND OTHER 
ANTI-EPISCOP.ILIANS IN FAVOUR OF EPISCO- 
PACY. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

The admissions of those who have adhered to a 
different form of Church government, but w^ho, 
in their writings, have borne either direct or in- 
direct testimonies in favour of Episcopacy, pre- 
sent a further argument in aid of estabhshing 
its divine origin. Fas est ab hoste doceri." 

Here, however, a considerable difficulty oc- 
curs; but it arises not from the paucity, but the 
multitude of these testimonies ; for, after that a 
selection has been made from the very wisest 
and best of these writers, a much larger number 
must necessarily be omitted ; and many must be 
altogether neglected, whose testimonies also might 
perhaps, in the view of some persons, be consi^ 
dered as affording equal, or even still stronger 
evidence. 

Doddridge, an eminently learned man, and a. 
decided Congregationalist, admits that DIFFER- 

3* 



30 



TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS, &C. 



ENT GRADES OF CLERGY existed in the time of 
Ignatius. His words are — The distinction be- 
tween bishops and presbyters does not^appear to 
be of earlier date than the time of Ignatius." — 
Lect* cxvi. ^ 17. 

Calvin, the Geneva reformer, speaks of the 
ordination of Timothy as being the work of the 
Apostle Paul himself, and not of the presbyters. 
His words are — " His expression in the other 
Epistle, of ' the laying on of the hands of the pres- 
bytery^^ I apprehend not to signify a company of 
elders, but to denote ' the ordination itself;' 
as if he had said^ — * Take care that the grace 
which thou receivedst by the laying on of hands 
when I ordained thee, be not in vain.' " — Instit. 
B. IV. c. iv. § 2. 

They named all on whom was enjoined the 
office of teaching, presbyters. They chose one of 
their number in every city, to whom io particular 
they gave the title of Bishop; lest from equality, 
as usually happens, dissensions should arise." — 
Calv. hist. B. IV. c. iv. § 2. 

If they will give us such an hierarchy, in 
which the bishops have such a pre-eminence as 
that they do not refuse to be subject unto Christ, 
I will confess that they are worthy of all anathe- 
inaSy if any suclr there be, who will not reverence 
it, and submit themselves to it idth the titmost 
obedience.'' — Calvin on the Necessity of reforming 
the Church ^---Johaih Calvin. Tract Theol. omnes, 
p. 69. 



IN FAVOUR OP EPISCOPACY. 



31 



Beza, the celebrated, reformer, in his letter to 
Archbishop Whitgift, writes : — 

In my writings touching Church government, 
I ever impugned the Romish hierarchy, but never 
intended to touch or impugn the Church of Eng- 
land." 

The same author writes — 
It was essential, that, by the perpetual ordi- 
nation of God, it was, it is, and it will he neces- 
mry that some one in the presbytery, chief both 
in place and dignity, should preside, to govern 
the proceedings, by that right tchich is given* him 
of God J'' — On the Degrees of the Ministry, chap, 
xxiii. 

" If there are any, as you will not easily per- 
suade me, who would reject the whole order of 
bishops, God forbid that any man in his senses 
should assent to their madness — Ad Saraviam, 
c. xviii. 

Bucer, another of the reformers, thus writes : 

"By the perpetual observation of all the 
churches, even from the apostles' time, we see that 
it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, that among pres- 
byters, to whom the procuration of churches was 
chiefly committed, there should be one that should 
have the care or charge of divers churches, and 
the whole ministry committed to him; and, bj 
reason of that charge, he was above the rest; 
and therefore the name of Bishop was peculiarly 
attributed to those chief rulers." — De Cura Cu- 
rat, p. 251. 



32 TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS, &€. 



Jacobus Lectius, one of the senators of Geneva, 
in his work addressed and dedicated to the syn- 
dics and senate, uses the following language : — 

We maintain that those are true and lawful 
bishops whom St. Paul describes in his Epistles 
to Timothy and Titus ; and we do not deny but 
that there were such formerly in that great king- 
dom of Great-Britain, and that at this very day 
there are such bishops there." 

Raimond Caches, one of the pastors at Cha- 
renton, and a man of great eminence in the 
French Church, thus writes to Mr. Brevint: — 

Would to God we had no other differences 
with the bishops of France but their dignity ! 
How cheerfully should I submit myself to them ! 
although you know that their yoke is heavy, far 
heavier than that of the bishops in England. 
How comes it to pass, then, that those of your 
Presbyterians that are great, understanding, and 
w^ise men, have such an aversion against moder- 
ate Episcopacy ? And why do they refuse to have 
communion with Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian, 
Chrysostom, and all that holy company of the 
purest antiquity ?" — -Durele^s Vieiv^ fyc. p. 125. 

Bishop Carleton, one of the British delegates 
to the Synod of Dort, gives the following state- 
ment:— 

^' I openly protested in the synod, that it was 
a strange proposition which had been inserted in 
said Confession, namely, that Christ instituted an 



IN FAVOUR OF EPISCOPACY. 



33 



equality among the ministers of the Gospel. I pub- 
licly declared that it could no where be shown 
that Christ had ordained such an equality: that 
he had chosen twelve apostles and seventy dis- 
ciples, and that those apostles were invested with 
an authority and superintendency over all others^ 
and that the Church had constantly and uninter- 
ruptedly maintained the same subordination. 1 
appealed in this affair to all the ancients, and to 
all men of learning of the present age; yea, I 
earnestly challenged any man in the synod to 
prove the contrary. The Lord Bishop of Salis- 
bury is my witness, and all the doctors that were 
with me, for I was the mouth of them all; and 
there was not one man in the assembly that pre- 
tended to contradict me, whence we justly con- 
cluded they were all of our opinion," — Brandfs 
Hist, of Refor. vol. iii. p. 288» 

Bishop Hall, also another of the delegates to 
the aforesaid synod, states as follows : — 

When the Bishop of Llandaff had, in a speech 
of his, touched upon Episcopal government, and 
showed that the want thereof gave opportunities 
to those divisions which were then on foot in the 
Netherlands, Bogermannus, the president of the 
assembly, stood up, and in good allowance of 
what had been spoken, said, ^ Doinine^ nos non 
simus adeo felices.'^ (Alas, my lord, we are not 
so happy.) Neither did he speak this in a fa- 
shionable compliment, (neither the person, nor 
the hearers, nor the place were fit for that,) but 



34 



TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS, &C. 



in a sad gravity and conscionable profession of a 
known truth : neither would he, being the mouth 
of that select assembly, have thought it safe to 
pass those words before the deputies of the States, 
and so many venerable divines of foreign parts, 
(besides their own,) if he had not supposed this 
so clear a truth as that synod would neither dis- 
relish or contradict." — Bishop HalVs Div. Right 
of Epis. part i. sect. 4. 

Peter du Moulin, an eminent theological pro- 
fessor of the French Presbyterian Church, writes 
as follows : — 

Our adversaries unjustly accuse us to be 
enemies of the Episcopal order 5 for v/e must be 
altogether ignorant in history, if we do not know 
that antiquity speaks honourably of that degree. 
Eusebius, in his Chronicle, witnesseth, that a year 
after our Lord's death, James, our Lord's bro- 
ther, w^as established Bishop of Jerusalem ; and 
that, ten years after, Euodius was created bishop 
of Antioch ; and that after James succeeded Si- 
mon in the bishoprick of Jerusalem ; from whence 
descended the succession of bishops in Jerusalem. 
St. Jerome, in his book of ecclesiastical writers, 
saith that Polycarp, St. John's disciple, was by 
that apostle made bishop of Smyrna. In the 
same book he saith that St. Paul established 
Timothy bishop of Ephesus, and Titus bishop of 
Crete. And Tertullian, in the thirty-second chap- 
ter of the book of Prescriptions, calleth those 
churches ' apostolical churches, and buds and 



IN FAVOUR OP EPISCOPACY. 



35 



sprigs of the apostles, whose bishops were estab- 
lished by the apostles,' &c. If sonvetimes we 
speak against the authority of bishops, we con- 
demn not the Episcopal order in itself, but speak 
only of the corruption which the Church of Rome 
has introduced into it." — P. da MoulMs Buckler 
of Faith, Lond. edit. 1631, p. 345. 

Zanchy, the intimate friend of Calvin, one of 
the greatest and most learned men among the 
reformers, gives us the following statements: — 

So also we acknowledge that from a perpe- 
tual succession of bishops in some Church, not 
indeed in every one, but in one which hath joined 
to it a continuation also of apostolic doctrine, 
such a Church may be shown to be truly apostolic; 
such formerly was the Church of Rome, and the 
succession of its bishops, to the time even of Ire- 
naeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, and some others; so 
that not undeservedly those Fathers were accus- 
tomed to appeal to her, and others like her, and 
to refer to her the heretics of their times. So, 
indeed, as to those Churches in which the apostolic 
doctrine, with Christian discipline and the legiti- 
mate administration of the sacraments, is retained 
pure, although they were not founded by apostles, 
nor have a perpetual succession of bishops even 
from the times of the apostles, nevertheless we 
acknowledge them for true Apostolic Churches, 
and we say with Tertullian and other Fathers, 
- that ' they ought to be acknowledged.' So, on 
the other hand, those which were planted and 



36 



TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS, &C. 



xvatered by apostles, although they may be able 
distinctly to show a continued and never-inter- 
rupted succession of high priests, yet if they are 
unable to show, together with a continuation of 
bishops, a continuation also of Christian and 
apostolic doctrine, we confess indeed that they 
were Christian and Apostolic Churches, but now 
can we by no means acknawledge them for such." 
— De Ecclesia Militante, vol. viii. fol. 537. Gen. 
edit. 1619. 

For we do not depart entirely and in all things 
from the Roman Church, but in those things only 
in which she hath departed from the ancient and 
pure Apostolic Church, and so hath departed from 
herself; nor do we leave her with any other mind 
than this, that if she, being corrected, will return 
to the original state of the Church, we also may 
return to her, and moreover hold communion with 
her in her meetings; which, that it may be so, we 
pray our Lord Jesus with our whole soul ; for what 
can be more desirable to any pious man, than that 
where we are born again by baptism, there also 
we may live, even to the end, only in the Lord ? 

I, Jerome Zanchy, with all my family, wish 
this may be testified to the Church of Christ 
through all eternity." — Idem. fol. 540. 

" For we know that our God is a God of order, 
and not of confusion; and that the Church is pre- 
served by order, and destroyed by irregularity. 
For which reason he had instituted many and 
divers orders of ministers, not only formerly in 
Israel, but also subsequently in his Church, col- 



IN FAVOUR OF EPISCOPACT. 



37 



lected from both Jews and Gentiles ; and for the 
same reason hath left it free to his Churches, 
that they should add more, or not add them, 
only that that should be done to edification. 
Therefore, notwithstanding that at first all minis- 
ters of the word were indiscriminately called pas- 
tors, bishops, and elders, and were also of equal 
authority; afterwards one began to be preferred 
by his other colleagues over all the rest ; not in- 
deed as a lord, but as a rector or governor in an 
academy, and to him especially the care of the 
whole Church was committed, so that by way of 
pre-eminence (Kc*^ ^bx^^^) he alone was accus- 
tomed to be called by the name of bishop and 
pastor, the rest of his fellow priests being content 
with the name of presbyter ; so that in every city 
one only began to be bishop and many presbyters, 
and this we think can be easily proved." — Idem, 
de Gubernatione Ecclesm Militantis, fol. 545. 

Grotius, long celebrated as one of the most 
learned men of his age, was a Dutch Presbyterian. 
He wrote against Episcopacy; yet even he admits 
its existence in the earliest ages of the Church, 
and that it was universally received. His words 
are in his notes on Acts xxi. 18. " He of the 
apostles who was at Jerusalem, performed the 
office which afterwards the bishop did, and there- 
fore called together the presbyters : unless per- 
haps this James was the brother of the Lord, not 
the apostle, but the bishop. Of the episcopate, 
therefore, that is, the superiority of one pastor 

4 



38 



TESTIMONIES OP PRESBYTERIANS, 6lC, 



above the rest, we first determine that it is re- 
pugnant to no divine law ; if any one think other- 
wise, that is, if any one condemn the whole 
ancient Church of folly, or even of impiety, 
the burden of proof, beyond doubt, lies upon him. 
The very ministry instituted by the apostles, 
sufficiently proves that equality of the ecclesias- 
tical officers was not commanded by Christ : we 
therefore lay down this, which is undoubtedly 
true, that it neither can nor ought to be found 
fault with; in which we have agreeing with us, 
Zanchius, Chemnitius, Heineogius, Calvin, Me- 
lancthon, Bucer, nay, even Beza, as thus far he 
says, ' that one certain person chosen by the 
judgment of the rest of his co-prosbyters, was 
chief over the presbytery, and was per- 

manently so." 

Not to multiply quotations (which were easy) 
from this author, of a similar kind, one more only 
shall be added. " Neither indeed does antiquity 
declare that to be true, which some now boldly 
affirm, that they who were evangelists could not 
be bishops : for as long as they traversed pro- 
vinces, they performed the office of evangelists ; 
but when beholding a plentiful harvest in one 
place, they believed it should be cherished by 
their continual presence, without doubt, presiding 
in the Presbytery, they performed the office of 
bishops." — Gi'o. de Ver. chap, xi, §3. 

Melancthon, the companion and fellow-labourer 
of Luther, says, " I would to God it lay in me to 



IN PAVOUU OP EPISCOPACY. 



39 



restore the government of bishops, for I see what 
manner of Church we shall have, the ecclesiastical 
polity being dissolved. I do see that hereafter 
there will grow up a greater tyranny in the 
Church than ever was before." — Apol. Aitg. Con. 
p. 305. 

Was he a prophet ? surely if not, he was won- 
derfully endowed with the talent of perspicacity- 

To these might be added a long list of their 
cotemporaries, men of the first standing, of the 
greatest literature and piety, amongst the Re- 
formers. 

In later times, men of the greatest eminence, 
and renowned for their literature in the Reformed 
Churches, have uttered similar sentiments. 

The noted Jean Daill^, pastor of the church 
at Charenton, a vehement stickler for Presby- 
tery, and who has been quoted by the author of 

the Review, &c." as bearing strongly against 
Episcopacy, in one of his ssrmons thus vrrites : 
^* Do the ivork of an Evangelist. It is true, 
that if we confine o jrselves simply to the form 
and origin of the word evangelist, it signifies, in 
general, every man who evangelizes, that is to 
say, who announces or preaches the Gospel, what- 
ever may be the order he sustains. But it is 
evident that, in the usage of the writers of the 
New Testament, it is the name of a distinct 
PECULIAR CHARGE, and not common to all the 
ministers of the word of G od. St. Paul teaches us 
so clearly in the Epistle to the Ephesians, wbere^ 



40 



TESTIMONIES OP PRESBYTERIANS, 



recounting the different sorts of ministers which 
Jesus has established in his Church for its edifica- 
tion, he says, * He gave some to be apostles, and 
others to be prophets, and othe7's to be emmgelists, and 
others, in fine, to be jmstors and teachers.\ There 
you see he takes the word evangelist in the same 
light as that of apostle and prophet, of pastor and 
teacher, for an express charge instituted by the 
Lord, and that he distinguishes and separates it 
from the otherSj of which he makes the enumera- 
tion. And we learn ako, from the rank which he 
gives to each one of these ministers, that the 
evangelist was less than the apostle and prophet, 
but greater than the pastor and teacher. The 
evangelist then was above the common pastors of 
each church, and his rank was in the midst of 
them and the apostles, higher than the former, 
but far beneath that of the apostles, whose mi- 
nistry was SUPREME, exalted over all the Church, 
in the throne of an established power and glory, 
to judge the whole Israel of God. The example 
of Timothy and of Philip evince to us that this 
order of ministry was not definitely attached to 
an individual flock, but had this in common with 
the apostleship, that it was employed in all places 
indifferently, according as occasion might require ; 
to announce the Gospel, to lay the foundation of 
the faith, or to establish it ; to regulate the 
churches, or to- remedy the disorders, if such 
should occur, against which the pastors and elders 
could not provide; these evangelists wxre as the 
assistants (les aides) of the holy apostles, who 



IN FAVOUR OP EPISCOPACY. 



41 



helped them and served them, either accompany- 
ing them, or going to execute their orders in the 
places whither they sent them, according to the 
necessities of the Churcho" — Ser. xxx,surVEpitre 

ii. d Tim. 

Neglect not the gift that is in thee^ ivhich ims 
given thee by prophecy, imth laying on of the hands 
of the presbytery, or of the ministers. It is true 
that he here says, (2 Tim. ii. 5.) it was he him- 
self who imposed his hands upon Timothy, whilst 
in the other passage he attributes this imposition 
of hands to the assembly of presbyters or minis- 
ters. But there is no difficulty in this statement, 
fiince this action might be truly attributed both 
to St. Paul and to the company of ministers, in 
the midst of whom it was done. All the company, 
after that Timothy had been presented to it by 
the Church, having approved his gifts, resolved 
that he should be received into this charge. After- 
wards, according to this decree, or this ordination 
of the company, the apostle St. Paul, as its chief 
and its preside7it, performed in its name, with its 
consent and its authority, the ceremony of orditm- 
Hon, imposing his hands upon Timothy, and con- 
secrating him to the holy ministry by his prayer 
and by his benediction ; whence it appears that it 
was both he and his company who laid hands on 
him ; the company by its voice and its assistance, 
by its assent and by the authority of its decree, 
St. Paul as the head and principal member of the 
company, and the executor of its decree." — Serm^ 

iii. snr la ii. Epit. d Tim. 

4* 



42 



TESTIMONIES OP PRESBYTERIANS, 



Benedict Pictet, professor of theology at Ge* 
neva, was a profound scholar, so noted, that an 
abridgment of his theology in Latin, is made the 
text-book in several of the English theological 
seminaries, and indeed in some of the Presbyte- 
rian seminaries of a similar kind in America, 
where he is deservedly held in high esteem; but 
his testimony is still stronger, he says in his larger 
work, written in French, and entitled " La Theo- 
logie Chr^tienne — 

We must not doubt but that in each consistory 
there v/as a pastor, who presided in the assemblies, 
collecting the votes and pronouncing the determi- 
nation. Whether it were that the order of his 
reception, or the determination of his brethren, 
gave him this rank ; on this account it is that he 
is spoken of as the angel of the churches. Apoc. 
c. ii.'^ In a marginal note to this expression, he 
says, The Jews gave the title of angel to their 
High Pkiest, and also to the ruler of their syna- 
gogue/' 

A little time after the death of the apostles, 
one of the pastors was called Bishop, and had some 
pre-eminence over the others, in the Church of 
Alexandria, after the death of Mark, and in other 
Churches ; although St. Polycarp, in writing to 
the Philippians, speaks only to them of the sub- 
mission they ought to maintain to their presbyters 
and deacons, without making any mention of their 
bishop, w^ho, in truth, at that time iiiight be dead.'' 
To this is affixed the following marginal note: 
We must confess? that in a letter of Adrian, 



IN FAVOUR OF EPISCOPACY. 



43 



referred to by Flavins Vopiscus, mention is made 
of a patriarch ; but it is probable that the reference 
is to a patriarch of the Jews, as many learned me© 
have proved. The Jews had one patriarch at 
Babylon until the thirteenth age, and at Tiberias 
till the commencement of the fifteenth age." 

I do not make these remarks as if I con- 
demned the churches where Episcopacy is es- 
tablished, I am convinced that the Reformed 
Churches ought not to disquiet one another upon 
the subject of exterior government, and that it 
ought to be left free to all the churches to govern 
themselves in the way which shall seem to them 
most expedient. True it is, that the Confessions 
of Faith of the churches of France say, that all 
the pastors have an equal authority and an equal 
power under Jesus Christ; but the design of the 
Confession was not to exclude all sort of subordi- 
nation among the pastors; it excludes OxNLY 
THE Roman Hierarchy ; and it has not defined 
the right of pastors as a matter of divine, univer- 
sal, and perpetual right; for never have they 
contended to reduce all the churches to the same 
exterior form. This is evident from the union 
which has always subsisted between the Reformed 
Churches of Geneva, of Switzerland, of France, 
and of Holland, on the one part, and the English 
Church on the other. And this is further evident, 
because a great number of theologians, attached 
to the Confessions of France and Holland, have 
recognised the English Episcopacy as a legitimate 
order. We may see thereon the letters of Calvin 



44 TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS, &C. 

to Cranmer, to Grindal, his treatise on the ne- 
cessity of the reformation, his letter to Edward 
Seymour, in the year 1543. Beza's book against 
Saravia. The EngUsh Church has always been 
held in the highest estimation by the Church al 
Geneva. We may see thereupon, what says 
Jacobus Lectins, the famous civilian and counsel^ 
lor of our republick, in his book against 'Le Code 
Fabrien,' liv. xi. p. 241. The letter of the cele- 
brated Mr. Diodati, which was printed by Mr. 
Durel, and that of Spanheim to the great Usher." 

With respect to France, the theologians of this 
kingdom have expressed their sentiments on 
various occasions. We have only to read the 
letter of Mr. Drelincourt to Mr. Brevint, that of 
Mr. Bochart upon the subject of Episcopacy, that 
which Mr. Amyraut has written in various letters^ 
Mr. Louis Cappel in his essays, the letters of 
Messrs. Roodolet and Guyon, those of Mr. Du 
Bosc, of Mr. Le Moyne, of Blr. L'Angle, and of 
Mr. Claude to the illustrious Bishop of London. 
■^Pict. TJieol. Chret. torn. ii. pp. 396, 397. 

In the second age there appears then to have 
been only three orders, bishops, presbyters, and 
deacons. "~Jrfm. p. 397. 

Mr. Du Bosc, of whom mention has previously 
been made, was pastor of the church at Rouen : 
though often invited to preside over them by the 
church at Chareoton, such was his attachment to 
his people, that he would not leave them; such 
was the high estimation in which his talents were 



IN FAVOUR OF EPISCOPACY. 



45 



held, that more than once was a bishoprick offered 
him by the French king, if he would conform to 
the Roman Catholic Church, He was looked up 
to by the French Protestants, as the greatest man 
in their community, and repeatedly was he charged 
with the office of delegate from the Presbyterian 
churches to plead their cause with their king. It 
is not too much to say of him, that he was the 
greatest divine in Europe of his day. Bayle, in 
his dictionary, narrates the following anecdote :— 

When I was at Caen," says the celebrated 
Menage, (who was a Catholic,) I heard the mi- 
nister Du Bosc preach; I never heard a minister 
preach but then." The following is an extract 
from a letter of his addressed to Mr. Brevint, 
chaplain to the British king, in 1650: — 

" I learn that he" (the king) " purposes to re- 
establish the Episcopacy ; but in making it, to bo 
so moderate and reformed, that in it shall be still 
seen all the air of the ancient Church discipline* 
This is a design worthy of him : it will secure to 
him the benedictions of heaven and earth, and 
gain for him the approbation of all good men- 
For though we live under another mode of disci- 
pline in our kingdom, let it not nevertheless be 
imagined that we disapprove of Episcopacy, when 
it is well and legitimately administered. How 
could any one entertain such an opinion of us, 
after the declaration so solemn which Calvin has 
made thereupon in his epistle to Cardinal Lan- 
dolet, in speaking of the order and dignity of 
bishops, when they limit themselves by the rulea 



46 



TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS, &C. 



of their duty, and by the boundaries of a Chris- 
tian moderation ? ' i/*,' says he, * there he found 
persons ivho refuse to respect such a hierarchy, I 
hold them deserving every kind of anathema.'^ 1 
might add multitudes of other formal passages 
from our Reformers, but this is sufficient to make 
known to all the world what is the sentiment of 
our churches ; and I should remember that I am 
writing a letter, and not composing a book. We 
condemn, in truth, the abuse of Episcopacy. We 
detest the pride, the pomp, and luxury of it, so 
contrary to the humility and simplicity of the mi- 
nisters of Christ Jesus. We condemn the great 
and immense riches which serve only to corrupt 
those who possess them, and to carry them into 
the worldly-mindedness of the age, to somnolize 
them in ease, and make them to despise the 
little and to ofiend the great — to maintain the 
life, not of pastors of the sheep, but of lords of 
the court and governors of provinces, only to 
deck themselves after the fashion of her who is 
all glittering with purple, adorned with precious 
stones and pearls, and who holds in her hand a 
golden cup. We condemn the tyranny which 
converts a primacy of order into a supreme do- 
mination. We cannot suffer these Diotrephes? 
who so iove to be the first, that they will tyran- 
nize over the heritage of the Lord. We reject 
the maxim which maintains that a bishop among 
the clergy is not as a consul in his senate, but as 
a prince in his court, and as a king amongst his 
officers and his counsellors. This is directly op« 



TPf FAVOUR OP EPISCOPACY. 



posed to the words of our Saviour, who said to 
his apostles, The kings of the Gentiles exercise 
lordship over them^ and they that are great exercise 
authority ; hut it shall not he so with you.^"^ In 
fine, we cannot allow that a bishop assume to 
himself all the authority of the presbytery ; that 
he alone should have the power of ordination, of 
deposition, of excommunication; and that the 
government of the Church should be lodged in 
his hands alone. 

But, with these exceptions, we honour and 
esteem, as much as any, the Episcopacy. We 
know that, for more than 1500 years, (written in 
1650,) it has been established in the Church; 
that it has advantageously served Christianity; 
that it has produced great men, holy martyrs, 
and admirable lights, which have illumined the 
world, and will yet illumine it, by their v/ritings. 
We acknowledge that this order has sinsrular ad- 
vantages which cannot be found in Presbyterian 
discipline. If we have followed the latter in our 
churches, it is not because we have any aversion 
for the former. It is not because v\^e esteem 
Episcopacy less accordant with the nature of the 
Gospel^ less proper for the Church, less worthy 
the condition of the true flocks of the Lord; but 
because necessity obliges us to it: because the 
reformation having begun in our kingdom amongst 
the people and simple ecclesiastics, the places of 
bishops remain filled by those of a contrary reli- 
gion; and from this cause we were constrained 
to content ourselves with having pastors and 



48 TESTIMONIES OF PRESBYTERIANS, &C. 

elders, from fear of opposing in one city bishop 
against bishop, which would doubtless have caused 
furious troubles and implacable wars. 

If the bishops had at first embraced the refor-^ 
mation, I do not doubt but that their order would 
have been maintained in the ecclesiastical polity ; 
and I find a convincing proof of it in an epistle of 
Martyr; it is the fifty-seventh, which he writes to 
Theodore Beza. He speaks to him of the bishop 
of Troy, in Champagne, where Christ had col- 
lected a large and numerous Church. He says 
that the prelate of this Church, having known the 
truth, set about preaching it publickly; and as 
he was an excellent man, that he powerfully ad- 
vanced the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. But that 
having entertained a scruple with regard to his 
vocation, which he feared might not be legitimate, 
he assembled the elders of the Reformed Church, 
to know from them if they would acknowledge 
him as their bishop; and besought them maturely 
to deliberate thereupon : which having done with 
all requisite prudence and wisdom, they unani- 
mously declared that they received him as their 
true and legitimate bishop. Who doubts but that 
if the other prelates of the kingdom had followed 
his example, and given, like him, glory to God, 
they also would have remained in their stations, 
and that their dignity would have been preserved 
to them ? since Martyr, in this epistle, approves « 
both the action of the bishop and the resolution 
of the elders. He wrote of it to Beza, as of a 
thing for which he blessed the Lord, and in which 



IN FAVOUR OF EPISCOPACY. 



49 



he knew that this great servant of the Lord would 
rejoice with him. We must not then draw any 
consequences from our churches against those of 
England; for in them the reformation having 
been commenced by the prelates and the bishops, 
we must not be astonished if the Episcopal go- 
vernment has always continued. And if there 
should be found persons so deeply in love with 
Presbyterian parity, {iT0Tifl(^ spa^ai) as speaks 
Isidore of Pelusium, to wish to oppose this an- 
cient order, and to subvert it entirely, at the ex- 
pense of the repose of the Church, they cannot 
fail to be blamed." — Vie de Du Bosc, (Euvres, 
torn. viii. p. 21 — 25. 

Beausobre, another learned Presbyterian di- 
vine, whose praise as a theologian is in all the 
churches, says: — 

It is said, and all antiquity incessantly repeats 
it, that the deacons in the Christian Church are 
the successors of the Levites, the pastors of the 
priests, and that, in fine, the bishops are the suc- 
cessors of the high priests. 

" But it may be asked, were there also bishops 
distinguished from the presbyters in these times 
— in the apostolic times ? This is the subject of 
great and obstinate contests, not only amongst 
the Protestants and Roman Catholics, but be- 
tween the Protestant Churches and the Reformed 
Churches. This question is not a point now for 
my discussion; I will only say, that a Christian 
who loves the peace and union of the Church, 

5 



50 



TESTIMONIES OF rilESBYTERIANS, &C. 



will never cause a schism for the difference of 
government; and if he does, he must answer for 
it before God. I will say, in the second place, 
that Episcopacy, having been established and 
accepted by the universal Church, it ought to be 
as much respected as we respect in states the 
governments established, although they may not 
have been the same in their origin and in the 
foundations of republicks. I will say, in the third 
place, that if, by the bishop, we understand the 
first, or the president of the college of elders or 
of presbyters, Episcopacy is as old as the Chris- 
tian Church. I will say, in the fourth place, that 
if the bishops had not opposed the reformation 
with all their might, the reformers would never 
have attacked Episcopacy, although, by course 
of time, it had acquired an authority which 
certainly never emanated from Christ and his 
apostles : I will say more — it is this — that if the 
pontiffs of Rome had been content with being 
patriarchs of the West, and if they liad not been 
the tyrants, the oppressors of truth, and of 
those who made noble and holy efforts to draw 
her forth from the tomb in which she had been 
buried, never would the reformers have thought 
of shaking off the yoke of the Pope.''^—Beausohre. 
Serm. siir Rom. xii. ver. 7, 8. 

Such are the sentiments of the greatest, wisest, 
and best of men who ever graced the Presbyteri- 
an churches; and such quotations as these might 
be multiplied to a very great extent : but surely, 
to ^vevj candid mind, these must afford evidence 



IN FAVOUR OF EPISCOPACY. 



51 



that Episcopacy did not arise, as some modern 
sciolists would tell us, only between the second 
and the fourth centuries. What ! these men, 
scholars so profound as far to surpass the mo- 
derns who contradict them — these giants in in- 
tellect and literature, compared with whom most 
of our learned professors are mere pigmies — 
these men, having greater facilities of ascertain- 
ing facts, by living so much nearer to the early 
ages, and having books then in vogue, which are 
now lost, or only with extreme difficulty obtained 
— these men, who had as deep an interest at 
stake, and who would, if possible, have denounced 
Episcopacy as an imposture — these men, unable 
to find out that Episcopacy was not known till 
about the third century, nay, all contending that 
it existed in the very first age, and most of them, 
that it existed in the days of the apostles — these 
men mistaken, and the moderns only able to ar- 
rive at the truth ! ! ^' Credat Judseus Appella/' 
The man, then, who, with these evidences be- 
fore him, asserts that Episcopacy did not origin- 
ate till between the second and fourth centuries, 
or who has the hardihood to assert that the first 
reformers of the Church of England were sub- 
stantially Presbyterians, defames, and he knows 
that he defames; and whilst excess of charity 
may lead some pious persons to attribute the 
moral malady under which he labours to his 
head, there may perhaps be found some who 
think themselves not uncharitable in ascribing it 
to his heart. 



LETTER V. 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY THE TESTIMONY OF 

THE FATHERS. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

From examining the admissions of those who 
have been the abettors of an opposite system of 
Church government, and whose testimony is of 
no small moment, we may proceed to consult the 
records of the Fathers of the earliest ages, which 
have been carefully preserved, and handed down 
to us. These might be traced upwards through 
several centuries, but as the most wise and re- 
nowned of the Presbyterians do not attempt to 
dispute the existence of universal Episcopacy 
after the second age of the Church, and as there 
are none but who admit it as having so obtained 
in the third, or, at furthest, the fourth century, so 
it w^ill only be necessary to refer to the writings 
of such as in the last mentioned periods, or pre- 
viously, bear testimony upon this point. Here 
again the same difficulty occurs as on a former 
argument, \'\z. the multiplicity of evidence. It 
is hard to select and to refuse, when so many 
present important and equally strong testimony ; 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED, <fcc. 



53 



but out of the month of two or three ivitnesses, says 
Scripture, shall every icord " be established.^'^ 

And to this species of proof (quotations from 
the Fathers, and their testimony upon the subject) 
no vahd objections can possibly be raised by any 
reasonable being. To argue against the reception 
thereof, would be to argue against all history of 
whatever kind, since we are indebted for all our 
acquaintance with past events, to the records of 
those persons who witnessed them, and who were 
co-temporary with their occurrence. But who 
ever thought of rejecting such traditions? So to 
do, would be to set at nought all history, to brand 
all mankind as fools ; it would be by one sweeping 
stroke to blot out, not only the memorials of all 
antiquity, but also to nullify revelation itself, 
which is a registration of facts, (every doctrine of 
Scripture being a fact, for the authenticity of 
which we are indebted to the testimony of these 
identical Fathers,) and thus to obliterate even 
Christianity itself. Any objection of this kind^ if 
it were brought, would, by attempting to prove 
too much, prove nothing. 

Neither can any reasonable objection be raised 
against the character of such witnesses. Where 
is the foul calumniator to be found, the image of 
him who is emphatically called the accuser of the 
brethren^'^'' who would dare to impeach them of 
dishonesty? If they stated as fact, that which 
all in their day knew to be falsehood, refutation 
would have been easy, and, in the collision of par- 
ties, must certainly have taken place ; besides, no 

5* 



54 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY THE 



possible motive can be assigned why they should 
have attempted to deceive, but every reason can 
be shown why they should not have done so. 
Were they not men of good morals ? of exalted 
piety ? not only teachers of Christianity, but many 
of them her martyrs? men who "loved not their 
lives even unto the deatK''^ for the cause of Truth? 
To such men, then, every candid mind would 
listen, and none but he who should argue from 
his own evil disposition, would be disposed to 
dispute their testimony. If the records of a 
Xenophon, a Livy, a Tacitus, a Hume, a Cla- 
rendon, with multitudes of others, are considered 
as deserving of credence, and are received as 
authentic, surely those of the ministers of Christ, 
and especially his devoted martyrs, are entitled 
to the same reception. Besides, the very men 
who pretend to reject them, never fail, when they 
can, to avail themselves of their writings, if they 
think they find therein any thing that can sub- 
serve their own cause. 

Now there are few things of which we cannot 
trace the origin. We have found out the source 
of the Nile; we can follow back to their com- 
- mencement, the foundations of empires ; we can 
ascertain the very first germ and nucleus of the 
Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman monar- 
chies ; we can determine the period of the birth of 
every society; borne down by ihe current of reve- 
lation, we can perceive the origin of the Jewish 
Church, we can understand the time of the for- 
mation of man, and certify ourselves of the birth 



TESTIMONY OP THE FATHERS. 



55 



of creation. We can in later times define when 
arose Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, Qua- 
kerism, Methodism, and a multitude of other 
isms." But, in the midst of all these, according 
to most of its opponents, Episcopacy is an ano- 
maly. Of late, however, some learned Presby- 
terians have delved in the dust and rubbish of 
past ages. One of them, doubtless highly gifted 
for the purpose, and delighted with his wonderful 
discoveries, exclaims triumphantly, evpsKx, evpsxa, 
(I have found it, 1 have found it.) Where? 
where? is the inquiry. Oh! it is somew^here 
betw^een the third and fourth centuries. But 
where there ? when did it appear ? Alas ! alas I 
it is so mercurial in its nature, that, just as he 
pounces upon it, it glides away from his touch, 
and, after all his vapouring and pedantry, he finds 
himself still remaining in statu quo." He re- 
sembles the mariner, who, having lost his reckon- 
ing, sees, as he thinks, some hills at a distance, 
and cries, Land! land! but the clouds have de- 
ceived him, and, after long toiling and sailing, 
he finds him.self as distant from it as ever, till the 
sun shines upon it, and it vanishes, the airy phan- 
tom dispersing beneath its beams. 

But to the point— the testimony of the Fathers* 

St. Jerome, who lived in ftie year of the Chris- 
tian era 378, and v/ho is adduced by the oppo- 
nents of Ep'iscopacy as furnishing them with the 
strongest arguments of this kind of testimony 
against it. St. Jerome says as follows: — 



60 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BIT THE 



That we may know that the apostolick tradi- 
tions were taken from the Old Testament, that 
which Aaron and his sons and the Levites were 
in the temple, let the bishops, presbyters, and 
deacons claim to themselves in the Church."—- 
Epis. ad Evagrinm. 
Again: 

Ignatius, the third bishop of the Church of 
Antioch after the Apostle Peter, in the persecu- 
tion under Trajan, was condemned to wild beasts. 
And when he came to Smyrna, where Polycarp, 
the disciple of John, was bishop, he wrote an 
epistle to the Ephesians, another to the Mag- 
nesians, a third to the Trallians, a fourth to the 
Romans. And when he was gone thence, he 
wrote to the Philadelphians, the Smyrneans, and, 
in particular, to Polycarp." — De Illus. Horn. 
Again : 

The apostles were thy fathers because they 
begat thee ; but now that they have left the world, 
thou hast in their stead their sons the bishops."— 
Ad. Eccles. 
Again : 

Without the bishop's license neither presbyter 
or deacon has a right to baptize." — -Dial. Adver. 
Luc. chap. iv. 

Again : 

Be thou subject to thy bishop, (pontifici) and 
look upon him as the parent of thy soiiV'—Epts. 
ad Nepotaniitm: 

Writing also to Riparius! concerning the conduct 
of Vi^ilantius, a refractory presbyter, he says *. — 



TESTIMONY OP THE FATHERS. 



57 



** I wonder that the holy bishop in whose di- 
ocese this presbyter is said to be, should submit 
to his madness, and not break this useless vessel 
with his apostolick and iron rod."— ad Ri- 
parium. 

Again : 

After that — one was chosen who was preferred 
to the rest, that a remedy might be found for 
schism, lest each one drawing to himself should 
break the Church of Christ. For at Alexandria, 
FROM Mark the Evangelist even to Heraclas 
and Dionysius, bishops, the presbyters always 
named as bishop one chosen from themselves, 
and placed him in a higher grade." 

For what does a bishop, ordination excepted, 
which a presbyter may not do?" — JEpis, ad Eva- 
grium. 

Once more : 
It is the custom of the Church for the bishop 
to go and invoke the Holy Spirit, by imposition of 
hands on such as were baptized by presbyters 
and deacons, in villages and places remote from 
the mother church. Do you ask where this is 
written ? In the Acts of the Apostles." — Idem. 

From these passstges (and others of a like kind 
might be produced,) it is evident that Jerome 
maintained not only that Episcopacy existed in 
his day, but also that it was an apostolick institu- 
tion. If he did not, he meant to deceive, and 
consequently he must have been a bad man. 

Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, was born in th© 



68 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY THE 



year 333, and was co-temporary with Jerome. 
He was a man not only of great eloquence, but 
also of singular piety. In his Commentary upon 
the Epistle to Timothy, when speaking of his 
ordination to the episcopate, he thus writes : — 

Herein he shows also by what manner a 
bishop is ordained; for neither is it lawful or 
permissible that an inferior should ordain a supe- 
rior, since no one can bestow that which he has 
not first received." — Co?nm. in Epis. ad Tim. 

Hilary, a Roman deacon, who in the year 353 
was present at the Synod of Aries, and to whom 
several works are ascribed, thus writes in his 
Commentary on Timothy : — 

The bishop is chief; though every bishop is 
a presbyter, every presbyter is not a bishop." — 
1 Tim, iii. 

Again : 

'"^ Timothy and Titus were angels, (bishops) as 
taught in the Revelation of St. John." — Comm. 
1 Cor. xi. .10. 

Optatus, bishop of Mela, in Africa, was co- 
temporary with the former; he writes:— 

The Church has her several members, bishops, 
presbyters, deacons, and the company of the faith- 
ful." — Contra Parmen. lib. 2. 

Cyprian was bishop of Carthage; he suffered 
martyrdom under the Emperor Valerian, in the 
year 258. He wrote, amongst many other works, 



TESTIMONY OP THE FATHERS. 



69 



one entitled, On the Power of the Presbytery 
when the Bishop is absent;" and another, On 
the Order of Bishops and Presbyters." In an- 
other of his works he writes: Our Lord, whose 
commands we ought to reverence and obey, being 
about to constitute the Episcopal honour and the 
frame of his Church, said to Peter, ' Thou art 
Peter,' <fcc. From thence the order of bishops 
and constitution of the Church does descend by 
the line of succession, through all times and ages, 
that the Church should be built upon the bishops. 
It is established by the divine law, that every act 
of the Church should be governed by the bishop." 
— Epist. xxxiii. de Lapsis, Edit. Oxon. 

Again: . 
Christ said to the apostles, and by that to all 
bishops, or governors of his Church, who succeed 
the apostles by vicarious ordination, and are in 
their stead — * He that heareth you, heareth me.' " 
— Epist. Florentio^ Ixvi. 

It would extend these letters far too widely to 
quote many other passages from this Father; 
one more shall suffice : — - 

What danger ought we to fear from the dis- 
pleasure of God, vvhen some presbyters^ neither 
mindful of the Gospel nor of their own station in 
the Church — -neither regarding the future judg- 
ment of Godj nor the bishop who is set over them, 
(which was never done under our predecessors) — 
with the contempt and neglect of the bishop, do 
arrogate all rule unto themselves!" — Epist. xvi. 
p. 36. Preshijteris et Diaconitis. 



60 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY THE 



Origen, of Alexandria, was born in the year 185 
or 189, and died at Tyre about the year 252: he 
was reckoned to be a prodigy of Uteratnre. In his 
Commentary upon Matthew, he names bishops, 
presbyters, and deacons as three distinct orders. 
" Such a bishop," says he, speaking of one who 
sought after vain-glory, doth not desire a good 
work; and the same is to be said of presbyters 
and deacons." The bishops and presbyters, who 
have the chief place among the people. The bishop 
is called Prince in the churches*" Speaking of 
the irreligious clergy, he addresses them, " Whe- 
ther bishops, presbyters, or deacons." — Comm. 
in Matth. p. 255. 

TertuUian, another eminent Father, died in 
the year 220, in his b9ok of the Prescriptions of 
Hereticks, he thus writes :— - 

Let them produce the original of their churches, 
let them show the order of their bishops, that by 
their succession we may see whether their first 
bishop had any of the apostles, or apostolical men 
who did likewise persevere with the apostles, for 
his founder and predecessor; for thus the apos- 
tolical Churches do derive their succession; as 
the Church of Smyrna from Polycarp, whom 
John the apostle placed there; the Church of 
Rome from Clement, who was in like manner 
ordained by Peter; and so the other churches 
can produce those constituted in their bishopricka 
by the apostles." — C. 34. 



TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS. 



6i 



Irenaeus was bishop of Lyons, in France. He 
was a disciple of the martyr Polycarp, who was 
bishop of Smyrna. He lived about the year 167. 
He is highly eulogized by Mosheim, who repre- 
sents some of his works as being amongst the 
most precious remains of ancient erudition. The 
following are extracts from the works so de- 
scribed : — 

We can reckon those bishops who have been 
constituted by the apostles and their successors 
all the way to our times ; and if the apostles knew 
hidden mysteries, they would have certainly deli- 
vered them to those chiefly to whom they com- 
mitted the churches themselves, and whom they 
left in the same places of government as them- 
selves. We have the succession of bishops to 
whom the Apostolick Church in every place was 
eommitted.^ ^—Adver. Hcereticos, 1. iii. c. 3. 
Again : 

The true knowledge is the doctrine of the 
apostles, and the ancient state of the Church 
throughout the whole world, and the character 
of the body of Christ, according to the succession 
of bishops, to whom they committed the Church, 
that is in every place, and which has descended 
even to us." — Adv. Hceret. lib. iv. c. 6. 

" Polycarp," says Pictet, who is believed to 
be the angel of the Church at Smyrna, mentioned 
Apoc. ii. c. suffered martyrdom at the age of 86; 
being, according to Pearson, the year N. S. 147. 
He wrote several letters, as we learn from Ire- 

6 



62 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY THE 



naeus. There are some which have been pub- 
lished under his name, and which have been 
considered to be supposititious; but there is one 
which several admit as genuine, and which is 
addressed to the Philippians."-— (Ez^i;r^5 Melees^ 
torn. iii. p. 5. 

In this epistle Polycarp writes— 
The Epistles of Ignatius, which he wrote un- 
to us, together with what others of his have come 
to our hands, we have sent to yon according to 
your order, which are subjoined to this epistle: 
by which you may be greatly profited; for they 
treat of faith and patience, and of all things that 
pertain to edification in the Lord Jesus." — EpisL 
PhiL % 9. 

Ignatius was bishop of the Church at Antioch, 
in the year of our Lord 7L He suffered martyr- 
dom in the year 107. He was instituted bishop 
of the Church at Antioch by the apostles, and 
considered himself, and all other Christian ** bi- 
shops^ as invested with their autherity, and as 
succeeding them in their office;" as will appear 
from his letter. 

That the shorter Epistles ascribed to him, and 
from which quotations will be made, w^ere the 
geijuiiae letters of this Father, is evident fronv~ 

The testimony of Polycarp, as before cited. 

The testimony of IrensBus, who cites from Igna- 
tius, as his authority, the following passage: I 
am the corn of God: I shall be ground by the 
teeth of beasts, in order that I may become tha 



TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS. 



(53 



bread of Jesus Christ." — Adver. Hceret, lib. v- 
c. 26. 

The testimony of Origen, who, in his works 
upon the Canticles, cites liim quoting this as his 
expression — My Love is crucified." 

The testimonies of Eusebius, Jerome, and 
others ; but these are needless, as I may quote—- 

The testimony of Lardner, an English critick, 
who certainly was a low Arian, and whom the 
Arians claim as one of their party. In his Cre- 
dibility of the Gospel History," he says — ** 1 have 
carefully compared the two editions, and am very 
well satisfied, upon that comparison, that the 
larger are an interpolation of the smaller, and 
not the smaller an epitome or abridgment of the 
latter." This is the testimony of one of th© 
greatest scholars and acutest criticks of his day, 
a man whom every motive would have induced 
to reject them, if he deemed them spurious, but 
whom honesty would not allow so to do. 

The testimony of Dr. Dwight, who, in his 
System of Theology, refers to them in support 
of infant baptism. 

The testimony of Dr. Miller, yes, of that very 
Dr. Miller who, when writing against the Epis- 
copalians, said, ''that the shorter Ejjistles of Igna- 
tius are wnwortliy of confidence as the genurae icorks 
of the Father ivhose name they hear, is the opinion 
of many of the ablest and hest judges in the Pro- 
testant loorldy This same person, " Eheuj quan- 
tum mutatus ab illo ! !" in writing subsequently 
against the Unitarians, and wishing to urge th© 



64 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY THE 



sentiments of the same Father against them, says 
in words as follow: " The great body of learned 
men consider the smaller Epistles of Ignatius as, 
in the main^ the real works of the loriter whose 
name they bear.^^ Thus his real opinion has been 
wrung from him, if indeed such an opinion, given 
under such circumstances, be of any importance 
at all. 

What then says Ignatius ? 
Be subject unto your bishop, as to the Lord, 
and to the presbyters, as to the apostles of Christ; 
likewise the deacons, also being ministers of the 
mysteries of Christ, ought to please in all things. 
Without these, there is no Church of the elect: 
he is without, who does any thing without the 
bishop, and presbyters, and deacons, and such an 
one is defiled in his conscience." — Ejns. to the 
Trallians, 

" You ought not to despise the bishop for his 
youth, but to pay him all manner of reverence, 
according to the commandment of God the Fa- 
ther, and as I know your holy presbyters do. "™ 
Epis. to the Magnesians. 

1 exhort you to partake of the one eucharist; 
for there is one body of the Lord Jesus, and one 
blood of his which was shed for us, and one cup, 
and one altar; so there is one bishop, with the 
presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants, "~ 
Epist. to the Philadelphians. 

These are only a few quotations from a large 
number of passages of like import in these Epis- 
tles, and if these do no! evince that he believed 



TESTIMONY OP THE FATHERS. 



65 



in a triple gradation of the ministry, and that 
fiuch a gradation was of divine appointment, then 
language cannot possibly be the safe medium of 
conveying the ideas of one man to the mind of 
another. 

Clement was bishop of Rome. He also suf^ 
fered martyrdom. He is mentioned by St. Paul, 
Phil. iv. 3; and Origen says, he was a disciple 
of St. Peter," — Origen de Princip. lib. ii. c. 3. 

"He wrote," says Pictet, {(Euvres Melees, torn, 
iii. p. 2,) an Epistle to the Corinthians, on occa- 
sion of the great schism which had taken place 
in that Church by those who, having received 
extraordinary gifts, rebelled against the ordinary 
pastor, to exhort them to peace, and to remain 
firm in the faith. It appears that the Corinthian 
Church had sent persons to the Church at Rome, 
to implore their assistance in this unhappy schism. 
—Phorius in Bib* Cod. 1 1 ; Hieron* lib, de Vir. 
Illus. et alibi; Trenceus, lib. iii. Adv. Hceret. c. 3." 

This letter has been highly esteemed, and, 
according to Eusebius, they were accustomed 
publickly to read it. — Euseb. lib. v. c. 16 — 38." 
Thus far Pictet. 

In this letter we find him saying — To the 
high priest his proper offices were appointed ; the 
priests had their proper order, and the Levites 
their peculiar deaconship (A/^^xov/cc), and the lay« 
men what was proper for laymen."™C7ew. Epist. 
Cor. § 40. 

Again : 

6* 



66 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY THE 



The apostles knew, by the Lord Jesus Christ, 
that contests would arise concerning the Episco- 
pal name; and for this cause, having thereof per- 
fect foreknowledge, they did ordain those whom 
we mentioned before, and moreover, did establish 
the constitution, that other approved men should 
succeed those who died in their office and minis- 
try." — Idem^ % 44. 

Thus have the testimonies of the Fathers been 
traced up to the very first persons who were or- 
dained in the Church by the apostles themselves, 
and their evidence is altogether in support of 
Episcopacy. And is it possible that such men 
mistook the nature and constitution of the Church ? 
Then who can now possibly understand it ? Then 
how were the apostles deceived in the appoint- 
ment of such men to the ministry? Then (who 
does not shudder at the thought ?) how egregious 
the error of the Head of the Church, in leaving 
this matter to the apostles ; and how inattentive 
was he to the interests of his kingdom, in per- 
mitting, even with his own servants, such a fun- 
damental heresy, at so early a period, to obtain ! 

In addition to these testimonies, there is one 
fact, which, if duly weighed, must evolve demon- 
stration upon every unprejudiced mind. The 
Rev. Dr. Buchanan, in the volume published by 
him, in which he gives an account of his mission- 
ary travels, informs us, that in the very bosom of 
Asia he discovered, to his surprise and delight, a 
Syriac Christian Churchy of whose existence, till 
then, he had but an imperfect knowledge ; that this 



TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS^. 



Church was Episcopal in its government; that il 
traced up its bishops, in regular succession, to 
the apostolick age; that, in poverty and purity, it 
had maintained its faith in the seclusions of the 
wilderness, and that it had never submitted, in 
any way, to the heresies of Rome, having not 
even heard of them till some little time before, 
by the Jesuit missionaries; in fine, that its dis- 
cipline was orderly, and its liturgy scriptural. 
He narrates part of a conversation which he held 
with one of their bishops, who wished to know 
something of the other Churches, besides that of 
the Church of England, which had separated 
from Rome. 

1 mentioned," says Dr. Buchanan, that 
there was a kasheesha, or presbyter Church in our 
cwn kingdom, in which every kasheesha (presby- 
ter) was equal to another. ' And are there no 
fihumshanas ?' (deacons in holy orders.) • None.' 
' And what, is there nobody to overlook the ka- 
sheeshas ?' ' Not one.' ' And who is the angel of 
their Churches ?' (alluding to the form of the 
seven Churches in A«ia, Apoc. ii.) ' They have 
none.' » ' There must be something imperfect 
there,' said he."* 

Thus, then, it was a mutter of surprise to him, 

* The above account is taken fro:i3 Q.n English copy of Dr. 
Buchanan's Researches. This fact is here mentioned, because the 
author has been informed that there was published in this country, 
some years since, an edition of the work, in vrhich the chapter con- 
taining the conversation above quoted v>-as entirely omitted. The 
cause of this omission was not explained. The Baltimore edition ijj 
a correct reprint of the Enghsh. 



68 JEPI8C0PACY SUSTAINED^ dtC. 

that a Church could exist without a bishop; be 
considered it as wanting marks of apostolicity. 
Such a fact amounts to demonstration of the 
opinion of the Fathers, 

When an argument has been carried to a cer- 
tain point of proof, all addition serves only to 
diminish its importance; it is like an attempt to 
bestow greater effulgence on the uoon-day sun. 
To adduce, then, upon this point, further evi* 
dence, would b© vain. 



LETTER VI. 

EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

Perhaps there is no passage of any writer that 
has been more frequently quoted of late years, 
and that meets with more general approbation, 
than that one sentence of Chillingworth — the 
Bible, the Bible alone is the religion of Protest* 
ants since, great as may be the respect due unto 
the Fathers, and important as is their testimony, 
they are of authority far inferior to the inspired 
volume. To the Scriptures alone should we look, 
as the true touch-stone of all religious sentiments ; 
they only are the infallible word, and whatever 
is not founded upon them, must be rejected, whilst 
it is at our peril to refuse what they teach or en- 
join. He who will not bow before them, must be 
crushed beneath them. The great inquiry, then, 
with every serious Christian, will be. What says 
the word of God.^ He will follow the example 
of the Bereans, of whom it is recorded to their 
honour, that " they searched the Scriptures daily^ 
whether those things were so.^^ He will say even 
of the Fathers — To the laic and to the testimonyi 



70 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



if they speak not according to ihem^ it is because the 
truth is not in themJ^^ 

Let us bring then Episcopacy to this test ; let 
us weigh it in the balances of the sanctuary ; let 
us apply this touch-stone both to Episcopacy and 
Presbytery, and we shall easily see which of them 
is the result of divine appointment. 

Every person who examines the New Testa- 
ment will perceive, that from amongst the number 
of his disciples, many of whom had been employed 
as the preachers of his word, our blessed Lord 
selected twelve persons, on whom was bestowed 
the title of apostles, whom he distinguished by 
some sort of pre-emlnerjcy uver the Others, invest- 
ing them with peculiar powers, and committing to 
them the affairs of his Church. To them he 
solemnly and expressly confided, as the master 
to his stewards, the keys of the Church," or, as 
he emphatically called her, " the reign [kingdom] 
of heaven ;" whilst, in consequence of this distinc- 
tion, the Church is said by St. Paul to be luilt 
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets j 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone 
and St. John, in his Revelation, says of the New 
Jerusalem, Theumlls of the city had tivelve fourt- 
dationSj arid in them the names of the twelve apostlet 
of the Lamby'^'^ referring to the practice of archi- 
tects, who, in laying the foundation-stone of som© 
important edifice, were accustomed to engrave 
their names thereon. 

That the apostles were an order of ministers 
superior to all their brethreBj is so evident froni 



EPISCOPACT SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 71 



tbe whole tenour of the Scriptures, that any 
attempt to prove it would be needless; it is uni- 
versally admitted; whilst several Presbyterian 
professors of theology, and amongst others Pictet, 
have laid down the following as requisite condi- 
tions of the apostl<?ship : — 

1st. That they should have seen a risen Sa- 
viour. 2d. That they should have been imme- 
diately called to the office by our Lord himself. 
3d. That they should understand the Gospel by 
immediate revelation. 4th. That they should be 
infallible in their doctrine. 5th. That they should 
have the power of working miracles, and of be- 
stowing the Holy Ghost by imposition of their 
hands. 6th. That they should have the power 
of inflicting bodily plagues, and even death, upon 
those who opposed their ministry. And, 7th. 
That they should have no particular residence, 
but superintend all the churches. — See PicteU 
TheoL Chret. torn. iii. p. 388. 

Besides the apostles, Scripture makes mention 
of other orders of ministers, who in their days 
were established in the Church of Christ. St- 
Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, iv. 11, 
speaks of different gradations. He tells us that 
our Lord gave aposiles, prophets, evangelists^ 
pastors, and teachers, for the icork of the ministry.^'* 
In his Epistle to the Romans, xii.6, 7, 8, he says, 
** Having gifts differing according to the grace that 
is given to us, whether prophecy, let lis prophecy ao 
cording to the proportion of faith; or ministry^ lei 



73 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 

US wait on our mimstering : or he that teacheth^ on 
teaching : or he that exhorteth^ on exhortation : he 
that giveth, let him do it tvith simplicity : he that 
ruleth, with diligence : he that showeth mercy, with 
cheerfulness.^'^ 

There were then different grades of rank, and 
different charges sustained in the Church. Nor 
would it be difficult, were this the proper place for 
it, to define the precise nature of these charges, 
and to support such definitions by solid evidence. 
Over all these different ministers the apostles 
were invested with authority to rule. As they 
received their office immediately from Christ, they 
were clothed by him with singular honour, and 
were regarded by their fellow Christians with 
profound reverence. As they were inspired by 
the Holy Ghost, so their decrees and doctrines 
were infallible, issued forth with authority, and 
not to be resisted. Acts xv. 28 ; xvi. 4. As they 
alone had the power of giving, by imposition of 
hands, the Holy Ghost, so were they greater than 
the prophets, than even Moses himself; Moses 
had not this power. See Numb. xi. 17. Elijah 
had it not. 2 Kings ii. 9. John had it not. Matt, 
iii. 11. The evangelists, as such, had it not. See 
Acts xix. 1 — 6. As, in fine, upon them was the 
care of all the churches, so to their direction and 
government all were submissive; they exalted 
and degraded persons therein, they alone held the 
rod of discipline. 

Such was their importance, that Pictet tells us, 
** The twelve apostles are called, by the Fathers, 



EPrscopAcy sustained by scripture. 73 

the twelve patriarchs of the new people, the twelve 
fountains of Elim, which furnished water to the 
second Israel of God, the twelve foundations of 
the New Jerusalem, the twelve stars of the 
Church's crown, the twelve angels who stand at 
the gates of the Holy City." — Pictet. Theol. Chret. 
torn, ii. p. 388. 

In his exposition upon Ephesians iii. 2. the 
learned Du Bosc thus speaks : — 

In fact, it was an incomparable grace, the 
highest and most eminent of all graces, (the 
apostleship,) since it raised a man to the highest 
degree of perfection, of dignity, and of power to 
which a man could ascend in this life; for what 
was an apostle but a living and speaking image 
of Jesus Christ upon earth — an universal pastor, 
clothed with all the authority of the great and 
supreme Pastor of souls? according to this ex- 
press language, which he addressed to his twelve 
first disciples, ' As my Father hath sent me^ even so 
send I you,^ John xx. 21 ; and, ^ I dispone unto 
you a kingdom, as my Father hath disponed it unto 
me,'* Luke xxii. 29 — comparing their authority to 
his own ; so that an apostle was a second Jesus 
Christ in the world. * If then the Lord is called 
the brightness of his Father^ s glory, and the express 
image of his person,'^ we may say, in an honest 
sense, the gradations and proportions being ob- 

* It is proper here to remark, that in the common traBsIation of 
the English Bible, the language is, I give unto yon, &c.*' I have 
here followed the literal rendering of the French vereion; and would 
add, that it is conformable also to the Scotch rendering. 

7 



74 EPISCOPACY SIJSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 

gerved, that the apostles were the brightness of 
the glory of the Son, and the sensible and animate 
image (caract^re sensible et animee,) of his blessed 
person. What grace then ! what inexpressible 
grace, to a mortal and sinful man, ' to be elevated 
to the apostleship !' ^^—(Euvres de Du Bosc, torn* 
vii. p. 340, 341. 

The apostles were ecumenical pastors, each 
one of whom regarded the world as his parish and 
his diocese."— /^/m, p. 346. 

In perfect accordance with these representa- 
tions, the apostles exercised a power very different 
from that of the ordinary pastors ; they were the 
source of authority, as the texts already quoted 
evince. They confirmed," as appears, Acts xix. 
6; they alone ordained," 2 Tim. i. 6; none 
others having the power to confer the Holy 
Ghost;" in fine, they held the rod of universal 
discipHne," Acts v. 9, 10; xiii. 11 ; 1 Cor. v. 4, 
5; 1 Tim. i. 20. 

Thus then, when Jesus Christ our Lord set up 
his Church, he instituted different grades of the 
ministry, over which he appointed the apostle$ 
as universal bishops. Now, then, does Scripture 
ever tell us of any alteration having taken place, 
or as having been designed in this mode of 
Church government ? If our Lord had not re- 
garded it as the best constitution for his Church, 
why establish, at the very outset, different orders? 
and why raise these twelve apostles to a station 
superior to the seventy prieaching disciples, when 
he could have as easily inspired and invested with 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 75 



rtmilar powers, not only the seventy, but also 
the jim hundred hrethren by whom he was seen 
at once; and thus, without needless difficulties, 
have every where founded Presbyterial or Con^ 
gregational churches, if such were the form he 
approved ? Why was this difference in rank 
made, unless for the very purpose of settling a 
ministry consisting of different orders and de- 
grees ? or if this were not his intention, why has 
not he, or why have not his apostles told us that 
such a mode of Church government was only 
provisional and temporary ? And why did they 
not lay down rules for a better ? Besides, our 
blessed Lord well knew that, finding such a 
government in his Church, and seeing its accord- 
ance with the divinely instituted priesthood of the 
temple, men would necessarily consider the one 
as the substitute of the other, unless some express 
provision or direction were made to undeceive 
them. Yet, instead of any such thing being done, 
every thing in the New Testament tends to help 
on the delusion in favour of Episcopacy, if indeed 
a delusion it be. 

Most readily is it admitted, that the apostles 
were invested with extraordinary endowments, 
such as inspiration, ability to work miracles, and 
infallibility in doctrine, to which none can now 
lay any claim. But the two former, inspiration 
and the power of working miracles, were con- 
tinued even for some time after the apostles' days, 
till the establishment of Christianity rendered 
them no longer necessary; whilst the apostles 



76 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



having concluded and consummated the canon of 
Scripture, infallibility became unnecessary also* 
But was the government of the Church unneces* 
sary? Surely, if, in the days when on many 
churches extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit 
were poured out — if in those days it was requisite 
that a superior order of persons should exist, in 
whose' hands authority should be placed for tho 
government of such churches, such an authority 
and government would be far more requisite in 
subsequent periods; and it was natural either 
that the apostles should consider their own ex- 
ample as the rule which their successors in the 
ministry should follow, or that they should ad- 
monish them that their government was intended 
only for a season, and that, after their departure, 
another order of things must take place. 

Now the latter they have no where done ; no 
where have they even intimated that a parity 
was to obtain. It is a received maxim, that where 
no precept to the contrary exists, the conduct of 
inspired men, who were exemplars of piety, stands 
in the place of precept ; what then could be more 
natural than that their conduct in the government 
of the Church should be imitated by their suc- 
cessors? But upon this point we have positive 
command — Be ye followers of me^^'^ says St. Paul, 

as I am of ChrisV^ " Keep the ordinances as I 
delivered them unto you^ 1 Cor. xi. 1, 2. But 
thou^^^ says he to Timothy, ^^hast fidly known my 
doctrine y manner of life, purpose 8fc. Continue 
thou in the things which thou hast learned^ and hast 



EPISCOPACr SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 77 



been asmred of^ knowing of whom thou hast learned 
them:'' 2 Tim. iii. 10, 14. ^' The things that thou 
hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same 
commit thou to faithful m^n, loho shall be able to 
teach others also.''' 2 Tim. ii. 2. 

Moses was an extraordinary personage ; no 
other was like him in all the Jewish dispensation^ 
but when he was about to depart this life, he 
invested another, though far his inferior, with the 
office he held. Aaron being about to die, was 
stripped of his garments in Mount Hor, and Ele- 
azar, his son, was invested with them in his stead. 
So in like manner the apostles provided for the 
Church against the time of their departure, by 
investing with their offices persons who wer^ 
indeed inferior to themselves, but who succeeded 
them in those functions which were necessary for 
the Church. That Timothy and Titus were thus 
appointed in the place of the apostle St. Paul, 
and that they were invested with a superiority 
over others. Scripture abundantly shows. 

Here it may be observed, that it is not for the 
term Bishop that the contest is so much main- 
tained, as for the office to which that term is 
applied ; not so much for the name, as for the 
thing which it signifies. It is admitted, that the 
titles of bishop, presbyter, and elder, were, in 
Scripture, different titles of the same person. 

They were called," says Pictet, bishops, be- 
cause they had the oversight of the flock; elders 
or presbyters, either because of their age, or 
their gravity^ or their dignity. They were called 

7* 



78 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPtURK, 



pastors," says he, because they fed the flocE of 
Christ the Lord.''— Theo. Chret. 2 torn. p. 396* 
But the question is, whether all these were upon 
a parity ; none disputes their subjection to the 
apostles. Were there any that succeeded the 
apostles in their office of government ? Who 
were overseers of the ordinary pastors or pres- 
byters ? Who exercised the distinct and peculiar 
office of those designated bishops ? And to whom, 
in consequence, by way of distinction, the term 
Bishop, as having the oversight of others, was 
given ? This, then, is the question to which we 
must seek a scriptural solution. 

Now upon this point the Scriptures are so plain, 
that " he who runs may readf' and in them we find 
Str Paul committing to Timothy and Titus the very 
same Episcopal pov/ers with which he himself was 
invested, and in consequence these two bishops 
exercising them. Upon this point the late Dr. 
Mason says,-— ^' that Timothy and Titus were su- 
perior to presbyters. Who denies it ? What ! 
do you allow that they severally had the power 
of ordaining to the ministry by their sole autho- 
rity? Yes, we do. That they had authority to 
inquire into the doctrines taught by the presby- 
ters ? Yes. To coerce the unruiy ? Yes. To 
expel the heretical ? Yes — we never thought of 
disputing it. Timothy and Titus could do ail 
these things, without being diocesan bishops ; an 
apostle could do them in virtue of his apostolic 
office; and, evangelist as Timothy, and conse- 
quently Titus, undoubtedly was, could do them, 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 70 



in consequence of his office as an evangelist, and 
yet be very unlike a diocesan bishop." Thus far 
Dr. Mason. 

He admits that the same powers, powers which 
were superior to those of the presbyters, and si- 
milar to those of the apostles, were vested in 
Timothy and Titus; but then he attributes this 
to their office as evangelists. But already it has 
been shown that this power did not belong to 
mere evangelists. What then was this office ? 
The term signifies, as Dr. Campbell has shown^ 
{Prel. Diss, p. 203) — " the first preacher of glad 
tidings unto a particular people." "It signifies," 
says Jean Daille, (already quoted,) every man 
who evangelizes, that is to say, who announces 
or preaches the Gospel, of whatever order he 
may be." This definition is generally admitted, 
and is therefore applied by Congregationalists 
to the missionary who, in any new place, first 
preaches the Gospel. But Timothy, in this re- 
spect, to whomsoever else he might have been 
an evangelist, was not so to the Ephesians, as 
any reader of the Acts of the Apostles will easily 
perceive ; nor as an evangelist merely, but as a 
bishop, or overseer of the flock — (who, when, to 
use the words of Grotius, they resided in one 
place, beholding a plentiful harvest, they believed 
it should be cherished by their presence, presided 
in the presbytery, they performed the office of 
bishops") — as a bishop, at Ephesus, had he the 
powers now contended for. 

Dr. Mason was utterly wrong in supposing that^ 



60 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BV SCRIPTURB. 

as an evangelist, he had these powers. Philip 
was an evangelist, but, as such, he could not con- 
fer the gift of the Holy Ghost, or confirm, Acts 
viii. 5, 6, Apollos is, enumerated by Jean 
Daill^ amongst the evangelists. Such," says 
he, were Timothy, Crescens, Titus, Apollos, 
and many others, of whom the apostle makes 
mention here and there in his Epistles." Serm. 
XXX. sur 2 Tim. But if Apollos could have con- 
firmed believers, why did he wait for St. Paul to 
do it? Acts xix. 6. Surely, then, as an evange- 
list, he had not this power; no more had Timothy, 
as such ; it was only when constituted a diocesan, 
as the successor whom Paul had ordained to this 
office, that Timothy or Titus possessed the powers 
already referred to. 

We have, then, from the Scriptures, an account 
of the immediate successors of the apostles exer- 
cising, like them, authority in the Church, and, 
as the representatives of the apostles, maintaining 
a supreme government; and as here the canon 
of Scripture terminates, and no account of sub- 
sequent events is given us in Scripture, we have 
irrefragable evidence that this w^as the govern- 
ment instituted by the apostles. At this very 
point the Fathers take up the thread of history, 
and they afford to the fact confirmation. 

That persons invested with such office as Ti- 
mothy and Titus had alone the power of ordain- 
ing, and that the presbyters had not, is equally 
plain from Scripture. St. Paul enjoins upon Ti- 
mothy and Titus ^' to ordain elders in every city;^^ 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 81 



but why should they be charged to ordain, if the 
presbyters already in those cities had power so to 
do? Paul enjoins Timothy to '-''lay hands sud- 
denly on no man^^'' words which imply his exclu- 
sive right to ordain. He invests him, as is evident 
from his Epistle, with authority to order the mode 
of the divine service, the rules of Christian disci- 
pline, the correction of heresies, the excommuni- 
cation of the disorderly— with the keys of the 
Church; he charges him in his turn to commit 
them to faithful men; and in conclusion, he so- 
lemnly thus addresses him : — J gi\^e thee charge 
in the sight of God^ loho quickeneth aU things^ and 
before Christ Jesus ^ tvho before Pontius Pilate wit- 
nessed a good confession; that thou keep this com-- 
mandment ivithout spot, unrebukeahle, until the ap- 
pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ i^"^ so that this 
charge extended until the second advent of the Sa- 
viour, and must therefore relate to his successors 
as well as to himself. The man who can see in 
this any sanction for Presbyterian parity, must 
have a mind so peculiarly constituted as to be 
able to reconcile any difficulties whatever. 

The following facts, then, appear from the re- 
cord of sacred Scripture : — 1. That there were 
already many elders, presbyters, or pastors in 
the Church at Ephesus, when Timothy was, by 
the apostle St. Paul, appointed to be their super- 
intendent. Acts XX. 17: And from Miletus he 
sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the 
Churchy — ^2. That in his charge to them, St, 
Paul admonished them to take heed to them- 



82 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



ielves;^^ to take heed to all the flock over which 
the Holy Ghost had made them overseers f'^ to 
feed the Church of God;^^ and to watch'^^ against 
the men who should arise^ speaking perverse 
things.^^ This was the sum of the charge ad- 
dressed to them by the apostle; not a word did 
he utter to them which would give the most dis- 
tant idea of their having any right to ordain, or 
to bear the rod of discipline. — 3. That over these 
elders a pre-eminency was assigned to Timothy. 
He was to govern them: Observe these things^ 
tvithout preferring one before aiiother*^^ He was 
to sit as judge over them in all matters of differ- 
ence: Against an elder receive not an accusation 
but before two or three witnesses. '^'^ He was to hold 
and exercise the rod of discipline: Them that 
sin, rebuke before alV^ He was to be judge of the 
qualifications of the candidates for the ministry : 
*^ Lay hands sudderdy on no man*^^ He was to 
ordain to the office of the ministry: The things 
which thou hast heard of me, commit thou to faith- 
ful mxn.'^^ — 4. That this pre-eminence in the Ephe- 
sian Church, and superintendence of its govern- 
ment, was vested solely and personally in Timo- 
thy: not a syllable is said, not a hint the most 
distant given, of his having any colleagues or 
associates in this office of government; the per- 
sonal pronoun thou, or thee, is invariably used — 
I charge thee" — that thou observe these 
things'^ that thou may est know how thou 
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,^^ 
&c. — 5. That Timothy was a young man, far 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



83 



younger than many of those who were the eldera 
(presbyter bishops) in the Church of Ephesus: 

Let no man despise thy youth.^^ 

Now, with these facts before us, can we pos- 
sibly conceive of any thing like parity being 
the primitive order of Church government? It 
is admitted on every side, that St. Paul was a 
wise man; but if any thing like Presbyterian 
parity was the order of his day, nothing can be 
conceived more unwise than this very charge of 
the apostle, nothing more calculated to awaken 
the jealousy of the presbyters of the Ephesian 
Church. It was, in fact, to throw down the apple 
of discord into the midst of them. To give a young 
man so much authority — to delegate to him a su- 
premacy over his seniors — to make him the defi- 
nitive judge in all their controversies — to appoint 
him alone to rebuke, ordain, to charge and watch 
over the other clergy— not to mention them in 
any way as associated with him— could any thing, 
upon the principle of parity, be more unwise, 
anjust, or dangerous, both to the interests of the 
Church or the humility of Timothy ? But, upon 
the principles of Episcopacy, all is wise and con- 
sistent; nor can any other interpretation be given 
than the Episcopal, of this point, which will not re- 
flect upon the wisdom and consistency of St. Paul* 

In like manner, the powers given to Titus at 
Crete, distinguish him from all the presbyters of 
that Church; which can alone be understood b*^ 
his investiture with the episcopate, or the apo;-. 
tolick succession. 



64 EIPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 

Hence it is that Timothy is in sacred Scrip- 
ture entitled an apostle, and by St. Paul himself. 
See 1 Thess. i. 1 : *^ Paul^ and Silvanus, and 
Timotheiis, unto the Church of the Thessalonians 
and ii. 6 : " Nor of men sought we glory, neither of 
you, nor yet of others, when we might have been 
burdensome as apostles of Christ.''^ In this pas- 
sage both Silvanus and Timothy are distinguished 
by the same title as St. Paul himself. 

Whilst, then, it was necessary that the first 
twelve apostles should be chosen to that office 
and invested therewith by the Lord himself, yet 
their successors (and successors they had) were 
to be appointed by the apostles, as to their wis- 
dom might seem most fitting; hence the very 
first act almost of the apostolick college, was the 
investiture of Matthias with that office — and he 
was numbered with the apostles.^^ St. James, the 
bishop of Jerusalem, was not of the twelve, yet 
St. Paul calls him an apostle. Gal. i. 19: But 
other of the apostles saw I none, save James, the 
Lord^s brother.^^ In like manner, Barnabas, Sil* 
vanus, Junius, and Andronicus, Epaphroditus, 
Titus, and others, have these appellations also 
bestowed upon them in the sacred Scriptures, 
although they were not of the twelve; and that 
they were invested by the other apostles with this 
office, is a clear induction from the language of 
St. Paul, who, speaking of himself, in opposition 
to them, as being invested with the office by our 
Lord in person, says, Gal. i. 1 : Paul, an apostle^ 
( not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christy 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCUIPTURE. 



85 



and God the Father./^ Thus, then, the apostles^ 
ordained others into their ministry; and very re- 
markable is the language of Cruden, a Presby- 
terian, in his Concordance : Apostleship," he 
says, signifies the office of the apostles, which 
was to preach the Gospel, baptize, work miracles, 
plant and confirm the churches, and ordain minis- 
ters. See Matt, xxviii. 19; x. 1; Acts xiv. 23; 
1 Cor. iii. 6." 

Further, we no where find in Scripture the 
presbyters possessing any power to ordain, nay, 
the Scriptures imply the very reverse. There 
are indeed two cases stated in opposition to this, 
each of which seems plausible, but each of which, 
when examined, proves not to bear upon the 
point. 

The first of these is the ordination, as it has 
been termed, of Timothy. St. Paul says unto 
him, ''Neglect not the gift that is in thee^ tvhich 
was given thee hy 'prophecy^ with the laying on of 
the hands of the presbytery.^'' Now, not to say any 
thing of the construction of which these words are 
capable, and which, as before shown, Calvin gives 
to the word translated ''presbytery,'''' referring ta 
the OFFICE to which Timothy was designated, 
and not to the persons by whom he was so desig- 
nated, St. Paul himself sets the matter at rest, 
in his second Epistle, by saying it was ** by the 
laying on of my hands*'' Jean Daill^, already 
quoted, says of this designation, that what the 
presbyters did, they did by their voice and their 
consent f but that " Paul did it as their chief and 

8 



80 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCHIPTURE, 



their principal^ by his prayer and his henedictioriy 
and by the laying on of his hands.^^ But if even 
the presbyters aided, why may not the presbytery 
be interpreted of the apostolick presbyters or el- 
ders, with St. Paul at their head ? At all events, 
it is allowed by the best writers on the side of 
presbytery, that the hands of St. Paul only were 
imposed : besides, they admit that the gift of the 
Holy Ghost was peculiar to the apostles; and by 
the imposition of the apostle this was now con- 
ferred. It necessarily follows, that by St. Paul 
alone v/as he ordained, and no argument can be 
derived thence for Presbyterian ordination. 

The second case referred to, is that which is 
mentioned in Acts xiii. 2. But will any one con- 
tend that this was the ordination of Paul and 
Barnabas to the apostleship ? Was it not neces- 
sary, according to Pictet and others, that the 
apostles should derive their office immediately 
from the Saviour? Does not St. Paul repeatedly 
assert that he was not indebted to any man for 
his office? For instance, in his Epistle to the 
Galatians, he says, Paid^ an apostle^ ( not of men, 
neither by man, hut hy Jesus Christy and God the 
Father J toho raised him from the dead^ ) The case 
referred to was not then his ordination to the 
apostleship, but the designation of him and Bar- 
nabas to a special mission ; of which it is after- 
ward recorded that they finished their ministry*'''^ 

Presbyterial ordination, then, has no sanction in 
Scripture; and the testimony of the first Fathers 
evince that it was unknown to them- Further, if 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



87 



,the primitive Church government was Presby» 
terial, (which was not the case,) it must have 
differed from that which now passes under the 
name of it ; the Presbyterians having foisted a 
new office into the Church of Christ, which they 
call lay," or " ruling elders." Now these men 
they ordain, but, most anomalously, they never 
allow them to ordain others, or to impose theif 
hands upon the ministry in ordination. Not only 
do Episcopalians contend that Scripture exhibits 
no warrant for such a class of officers, but by far 
the largest number of Presbyterians allow the 
same. To mention the names of such persons is 
needless, as, in some other works upon the subject, 
this has been already done. But even Pictet, theif 
favourite theologian, says, " The institution of 
them is not found in Scripture, as that of deacons; 
for when elders are spoken of in Scripture, it is 
clear we must understand the word of pastors. Il 
is true, that, in the fifth chapter of the first of 
Timothy, it seems as if elders w^ere spoken of who 
did not labour in the preaching of the word : * Let 
the elders that rule ivell, be counted loorthy of double 
honour^ especially those who labour in icord and 
doctrine.'' But when we carefully examine this 
passage, we find that it is of pastors the word is 
used ; for it is spoken of elders who preside ; since 
the Greek word marks a presidency which belongs 
only to pastors, whom the Fathers often designatei 
by this name. But it appears by this passage^ 
that when there were many pastors in a church. 



88 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



and that some were more proper for preaching 
than others, there were given lo them different 
employments. If there be any passage in which 
it might be supposed that mention was made of 
these elders, (lay-elders,) it is in the twelfth of the 
first of Corinthians, twenty-eighth verse, where he 
speaks of governments; but we must confess 
that nothing can be decided therefrom." — TheoL 
Chret. torn. ii. p. 421. 

Such is the honest avowal of this great Geneva 
professor, in which the largest number by far of 
the Presbyterian Church agree with him. If, 
then, there were no lay-elders in the Church, the 
apostle must refer to those presbyters who were 
pre-eminently industrious in their office ; not only 
engaged in governing the Church, but, at the 
game time, in publickly preaching the word. This 
is certainly the true interpretation of the passage, 
and is perfectly analogous with other parts of 
Scripture. 

One more text is cited in support of ruling lay- 
elders; it is Romans xiii. 8. He that ruleth 
with diligence.^^ That this text does not refer to 
lay-elders, will appear by the following quotation 
from Beausobre : " It may be supposed that here 
he speaks of the bishop, or of the presbyters ; and 
some interpreters think so. The apostle says, in 
the fifth chapter of the first Epistle to the Thes- 
salonians, twelfth and thirteenth verses: ^ And 
we beseech you^ brethren^ to know them which labour 
among you^ and are ove7* you in the Lord; and to 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



89 



esteem them very highly for their ministry's sake.'^* 
And in the first Epistle to Timothy, v. 17, 18: 
* Give double honour^ for they are toorthy of itj to 
the presbyters loho govern ivelL'^ Those who pre- 
side, are universally those who are called th© 
presbyters or elders, and who compose the eccle- 
siastick senate, whether they may preach the 
Gospel or have some superior ministry." — Beath 
sobre^ Serin, xviii. siir les Rom, 

The office of lay-elders was then unknown in 
the apostles' days. It is not sanctioned by Scrip- 
ture; consequently a Church which has them, is 
not formed upon the platform laid down in the 
word of God. 

That the term elders^ designated a ministerial 
or clerical office, appears from the apostles calling 
themselves elders, as well as presbyters and dea- 
cons; for as the apostolick office is the source of, 
and includes every other, so, to express their hu- 
mility, to convince men that they did not wish to 
assume too great state, or to Lord it over God's 
heritage'' the apostles, by w^ay of condescension, 
and in imitation of their blessed Master, desig- 
nated themselves by the inferior titles of their 
office. 

Upon this subject Du Bosc says : — 
But remark here the extreme humility of St. 
Paul, and the perfect modesty he evinces in this 
passage. (Eph. iii. 7, 8.) He was an apostle, 
that is to say, exalted to the highest and most 

* The author has in this, as in other quotations from French au- 
thors, given the literal translation of their Bible citations. 

8* 



90 KPISCOPACV SUSTAINED BY SOiUFTUUE. 

eminent of all charges, to the most sublime de*' 
gree to which any one has ever ascended upon 
earth. For an apostle was a living image of the 
eternal Son of God, as we have already shown to 
yoiu He possessed his authority, his infallibility, 
his power. He was a man so much above men, 
that he appeared to be a second Jesus Christ in 
the world, in whatever related to the instruction 
of the Church. Nevertheless, here you see him 
representing himself as a simple servant. ' God,' 
says he, * hath made me a minister of his Gospel;' 
for the term minister, means properly a servant. 
Still further; in the New Testament it relates to 
the very least of all the sacred services ; for it is 
that of deaconship which has been attributed to 
those who have the care of the alms, of the 
charities, and of the assistance of the poor ; so 
that St. Paul, according to the Greek language, 
says here that God has made him the deacon of 
the Gospel. It is thus that the least titles suffice 
great personages for to speak of themselves, of 
their employments, and of their virtues. The 
greater they are in fact, the more do they aim to 
appear little in words, that in this point they may 
resemble the stars^ of which the most vast and the 
most ample appear the least to our eyes, because 
of their prodigious elevation in the firmament. 
But especially is this modesty necessary and suit- 
able for pastors, who are the successors and dis- 
ciples of him who called himself Howly of heart f 
who protested that his ' kingdom was not of this 
world;'' who ' had neither form nor comeliness^'' nor 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



91 



any thing exterior, * that we should desire himf 
and who appeared as ' a loorm,'^ rather than ' a 
man^^ upon earth ; he took only the abject form of 
a slave and of a servant, and therefore it is, those 
who followed him could not do better than to take 
the name and title of it." — (Euvres de Da Bosc^ 
torn. V. p. 363, 364. 

Many other portions of sacred writ besides 
those referred to, might be adduced in further 
confirmation. But this is needless, as they have 
been so well set forth, and the arguments thereon 
so ably defended, by Dr. Bowden and Dr. Cooke^ 
in their respective works upon the subject. 

There is, nevertheless, one more proof from the 
divine word, w^iich deserves a very deep and 
serious consideration. It is the mode of our 
blessed Lord's address in each of his Epistles to 
the seven bishops of the Asiatic Churches, by St. 
John. After informing this beloved disciple that 
" the seven stars are the angels of the seven 
churches and that the seven candlesticks which 
thou Sawest are the seven chui'ches,^^ he directed 
his apostle to ^Ynte seven Epistles, and to super- 
scribe each of these Epistles to the angel of his 
several church. 

It is truly astonishing to what miserable expe- 
dients of shifting and evasion some men who are 
opposed to the episcopate have been driven, in 
order to get rid of the argument upon this subject, 
— to see how^ men of fine talent and admirable 
powers of reasoning have been compelled te 
stoop to sophistry and manoeuvre, which they 



82 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTORB. 



Otherwise would have treated with scorn, in order 
that they might support a favourite system. What 
must, for instance, be the desperation of such an 
one, who would contend that the star, or the 
angel, or image of a single person, is not to be 
interpreted in the singular but the plural number ; 
that it is not to be considered individually, but 
collectively ; that each star and each angel is to 
be regarded, not as the emblem of him who pre- 
sides in the Church, but of the whole Presbytery, 
that is, both of the clergymen and laymen who 
compose it ? Now such an interpretation would 
render the figure incorrect and unseemly; there 
would be no propriety in it ; it would be quite 

oiitrV^ If a company of angels, or a constella- 
tion of stars, had been employed, such an imago 
might be adapted to set forth a plurality of mi- 
nisters : as it now stands, to make it signify a 
presbytery, is to put it on the rack, to subject it 
to the torture, and thus to wring from it by dis- 
tortion, a meaning utterly foreign to iis import. 

Again, it is utterly contrary to the analogy of 
Scripture ; angels and stars, as WiW be hereafter 
shown, are in the sacred volume employed to 
typify the Gospel ministry, but never is a single 
angel or star employed to signify a collection or 
plurality of ministers. 

Further, if the stars do represent the presbytery, 
in which are now included lay-elders, it would be 
incorrect, as they (the lay-elders) are never not 
only not represented as stars, but, as already has 
been shown, never in Scripture once spoken of. 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



93 



In fine, if these figures do not refer to the bi* 
shops of the Church, it seems as if they were 
designed for the very purpose of misleading us. 
Our blessed Lord foreknew what contests upon 
the subject of Episcopacy would take place in his 
Church, yet, instead of employing language or 
figures that would guard against it, he here uses 
euch as must infallibly carry with them to the 
mind, the idea of a presidency and primacy in 
each of the seven churches* 

Neither can the terms relate, as Beza, Camp- 
bell, and others contend, to the moderator of 
Presbytery, since his relation as such to the 
Church is not official, gives him no right of dis- 
tinction, and is only temporary, since he exercises 
no authority or discipline over his brethren, but 
is only the organ of their voice; nor is he, as 
moderator, an angel, (that is, a messenger from 
God,) having no such employment to them, but 
is, in fact, only the momentary servant of the 
assembled Presbytery. 

Other interpretations are given of this subject 
by the learned Presbyterians of the old Geneva 
school, most of whom consider the star and angel 
of each Church as relating to its one president. 
The epistle, they say, is addressed to the pastor 
of the church, thus: — 

Henri Chatelain, pastor of the French refu- 
gees at Amsterdam, says : — It was to the angel 
of the church at Laodicea, that is to say, to the 
pastor of this church, and in his person to all the 
flock of which he was the head, that Jesus Christ 



94 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



sent this admonition — * Behold I stands &c.* - 
Serm. siir Apoc. iii. 20, torn. ii. 

Jossue le Vasseur, professor of theology at 
Sedan in 1660, says : — ''It is this, you see," (God 
promising eternal life and glory after his Church's 
afflictions,) 'Vthat he practices with regard to the 
pastor of the Church at Smyrna, in these words 
which we have read to you, exhorting him to 
perseverance in the profession of the truth, and 
in the practice of holiness ; and in his person all 
the members of the Church of God saying, ' Be 
thou faithful imto death, &c.' ^^—Serm. stir Apoc. 
ii. 10. 

Louis le Blanc, also professor of theology in 
the same college, and at the same time, (1660,) 
says : — " Especially this is the complaint which 
Jesus Christ brings by the apostle John against 
the pastor of the Church of Ephesus, in saying, 
* Nevertheless, I have someivhat against theeJ^ " — ■ 
Serm. sur Apoc. ii. 5, p. 6. 

Again, he says:—'' The Lord who had appear- 
ed unto John in a magnificent manner, and all 
resplendent with glory, and who commanded him 
to write in his name to the Churches of Asia, to 
admonish them of the things which his wisdom 
deemed necessary, addresses himself here parti- 
cularly to the angel, that is, to the pastor and 
rider {conducteur) of the Church at Ephesus, and 
in his person to all who were under his govern- 
ment ; and, amongst other things, he says~ 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED Br SCRIPTURE. 95 



* Remember from ivhence thou art fallen, &c.' 
£/. Le Blanc, Serm. sur Apoc. ii. 4, 5, p. 7, 8. 

Jean Daill^ says : — These are the words of 
our Master, of Jesus Christ, the all good and all 
powerful Lord of all our Churches, which he has 
redeemed by his blood, which he illumines by his 
light, which he conducts by his providence, watch- 
ing them and being assiduous in the midst of 
them, which he chastens also with his paternal 
rod, dispensing to them with a divine wisdom 
the judgments both of his clemency and truth, 
according as is most suitable for his glory and 
for their salvation. This great Pastor of his 
mystic sheepfolds, after having visited seven of 
them, which he had in Asia, having observed 
exactly what was to be found in them of good and 
evil, manifested himself to his servant John, and 
wished that he should write seven epistles in his 
name to the seven churches." — " The first of 
these epistles was addressed, by his order, to the 
Church at Ephesus, under the name of its angel, 
that is to say, of the pastor tvho had the charge of 
it.^' — Sera, sur Apoc. ii. 5^ p. 530. 
Again: 

But what, in fine, is the penalty with which 
he menaces the pastor of Ephesus and his flock? 
It is — ' I ivill take away tlie candlestick out of his 
place.^ St. John has already illustrated this enigma 
in the first chapter of his Revelation, where having 
said that he saw * seven golden candlesticJis,^ he 
immediately adds, that the Lord expressly in- 



96 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



etructed him in the signification of this vision, 
teaching him that the seven candlesticks were the 
seven churches." — Idem^ p. 535. 

Further, in another sermon, the same author 
says: — He dictated these words formerly to his 
servant John, who should write them in his name, 
and in his behalf, to the Church at Sardis, one 
of the seven Asiatic churches whom he honoured 
with his Epistles. For although, in the inscription 
of these divine letters, the pastor alone is named 
who governed each of these churches^ nevertheless 
it is evident that they were written for the entire 
body of the flock, that is, for the people and their 
rulers {conducteurs) conjointly." — Sei'm. stir Apoc* 
iii. 1 — 3, p. 665, 666. 

Du Bosc, in his sermon on lukewarmness, says: 
— In these virtues, mediocrity is criminal, mo- 
deration is vicious. You see a formal proof there- 
of in our text, in which the eternal Son of God, 
addressing himself to the Christian people of 
Laodicea in the person of its pastor, complains 
that he is 'neither cold nor hot.^ " — Du Bosc, Serm. 
sur les TiedeSj tom. iv. p. 113. 

Fictet says : — '' There was one pastor who pre- 
sided in their assemblies: on this account it is 
that he is called * the Angel of the Church,"^ Apoc. 
ii. &c. The Jews gave the title of Angel to their 
HIGH priest: they gave also the name of Angel 
to the ruler of the synagogue." — Tom. ii. p, 
396. 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 97 



Jacques Saurin, pastor at the Hague, in his 
discourse on the decay of piety, says He who 
speaks in our text to the angel, that is to say, to 
the bishop of Ephesus, {eveqtie,) and in his person 
to all the Church of that city, is Jesus Christ." — 
Serm. sur Apoc. ii. 4, 5. 

Easy were it to multiply similar quotations 
from Presbyterian writers, but those already pro- 
duced demonstrate that the oldest Presbyterian 
professors never once dreamed of considering the 
angel as the type of the presbyters, but of the 
presiding pastor; or, if such a thought entered 
their minds, they discarded it as incongruous and 
untenable ; nor would such an interpretation hare 
ever been introduced, but from the desperateness 
of the cause. 

In fine, Blondel, the greatest and most power- 
ful defender of Presbytery, ^' acknowledges that 
the angels of the seven churches were so many 
individuals, to whom, as their exarchs or gover- 
nors, the actions of the Church, w hether glorious 
or infamous, are imputed." — BowdcrCs Letters^ 
second series, let. xi. p. 127. 

But then Blondel, with others, contends that 
the exarch was the moderator of Presbytery, a 
sentiment already evinced to be perfectly erro- 
neous ; in addition to which, when these Revela- 
tions were written, there was certainly a bishop 
who succeeded Timothy in his diocese. Ignatius 
informs us, that when he wrote his Epistle, viz* 
twelve years after the return of St. John from 

9 



98 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



Patmos, Onesimus was bishop of Ephesus. With 
every candid mind, this would put the question 
beyond a doubt. Ex uno disce omnes." 

Perhaps some further hght may be shed upon the 
subject, by examining the scriptural import and ap- 
plication of the terms candlestich^ staVj and angel. 

As we are creatures of sense, and as we, there- 
fore, derive all our ideas from the material or 
Tisible objects by which we are surrounded; so 
can we form no conceptions of spiritual or hea- 
venly things, but through the media of those 
which are sensible. Hence God, in compassion 
to us, has been pleased, in all his dispensations, 
to teach ns moral and spiritual truths by figures, 
or by ideas, borrowed from the objects with which 
our senses are conversant. The whole world it- 
self was a type of the higher worlds of creation. 
Eden, the first abode of man, was filled with 
hieroglyphics, in which every creature presented, 
to the first of manldnd, a picture of correspondent 
heavenly things. The same was the case with 
the tabernacle and temple, all of whose divine 
institutions were types or images of the world 
to come." God has followed the same mode of 
instruction in his word: he has employed not 
only the productions of nature, and the employ- 
ments of men, and the offices of peculiar persons, 
but also the very productions of human skill and 
art, to lead up the minds of believers to the con- 
templation of spiritual objects. Thus the candle- 
sticks, the stars, and the angels were symbols of 
correspondent objects in his Church. 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



99 



In Exodus XXV. 31, 32, we have an accoLint of 
the candlestick of gold which Moses made by the 
command of God, upon whose stock and branches 
were placed seven immoveable lamps, which the 
priests were to keep constantly lighted and supplied 
with oil, and which were placed in the holy place, 
or second court of the tabernacle. This seven* 
fold golden candlestick was considered by the 
faithful amongst the Jews, (and our Lord himself 
has confirmed the truth of their sentiment,) as the 
representation of the Church. Its lamps being 
seven in number, v/hich the Jews, and others 
after them, have called the number of per- 
FECTio:^," intimated the sevenfold or various and 
perfect operations of the enlightening Spirit of 
God. ItB light being kindled by the priests, who 
derived it from the sacred fire on the altar, in- 
timated the instrtic-ioa imparted to the Church 
by a miai:^try divin^;!/ constitiit:: ^ .1 emanating 
from that atonement which is the great source as 
well as object of knowledge to the Church. Its 
oil, with which it was continually supplied, taught 
them both the nature and commonication of that 
grace Vvhich keeps alive the Christian faith, 
the unction of ike Holy One^ tcliicli teaclieih all 
things.^^ It was then an emblem of the Church, 
of which, to intimate his perpetual presence with 
it, the Saviour represented himself as imlhing 
in the midst of the golden caiidlesticks,''^ 

The candlestick differs in its type from the 
Btars: the one is the emblem of the Church, the 
other the symbol of its ministry. 



100 EPISCOPAOy SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 



Stars are the most luminous and brilliant ob- 
jects in nature, v hilst placed in the heavens, 
where they mny be seen, and whence they shed 
their influences; they are universally admired 
and celebrated ; they are images employed in all 
poetic songs; they serve as lamps to enlighten 
us during the absence of the sun- — as rulers to 
govern the seasons—as light-houses to direct the 
toil-worn, tempest-tossed mariner—whilst, beside 
their visible rays, they emit secret influences 
upon all below. IJence mankind, when they for- 
sook the worship of the true God, made them the 
oligects of their adoration, and considered them 
as regulating their destinies. To counteract this 
idolatry, Jehovah not only expressly forbade it in 
his word, but employed these heavenly bodies as 
types or figures of corresponding objects in his 
kingdom. Thas Christ Jesus our Lord is called 
a star; his ministers likewise are so tlesignated; 
but never is the Church represented by a star. 
If the Saviour be figured forth to us as the Sun 
of Righteousness, the Church is represented by 
the moon — shining during the darkness of the 
night — deriving from the sim her splendour — 
ever waxing or waning— her disk disfigured with 
spots: she " looks Jbrth fair as the moon but no 
where is she fi;| ared forth by the stars. 

" Pastors or ministers," says Cruden in his 
Concordance, of the Gospel, who ought to shine 
like stars in respect of the brightness and purity 
of their lives and doctrines, are called stars." 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 101 



In fact," says Du Bosc, the heralds of 
Christ are living and animated stars, who distri- 
bute in the Church the light of truth — who pierce 
the darkness of the night of the age, and the 
obscurity of error and ignorance — who enlighten 
and console the faithful during the absence of 
their Sun, that is to say, during the absence of 
that Saviour who resides, hidden from them, far 
above the heavens ; and it is by the salutary force 
of their influences that God quickens souls, and 
renders them fertile in good works." — (Eiivres ch 
Du Bosc, tom. iv. p, 747. 

But the stars are ruling powers in nature — 
this is not only a commonly received idea, but 
founded in fact ; the Scriptures tell us that ''they 
RULE over the day and over the nighty If, then, 
the image be correct, they can only typify those 
objects which rule also, though in another hemis- 
phere. This correct correspondence of the image 
with the object it represents, appears in the whole 
of Scripture. We may challenge a single passage 
to be produced, in which they are figuratively 
used, but they refer either to temporal or spiritual 

RULERS. 

Jesus Christ the Lord is spoken of in Scripture 
as a star: Balaam thus describes him, Numbers 
xxiv. 7. To St. John, Jesus declared — " lam the 
bright and morning star.^^ He was so, because 
of the unsullied purity of his ministry — the pro- 
fundity of his light and wisdom — the benignancy 
of his aspect — the glory of his person and ministry : 

9* 



103 EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 

^' In him was light, and that light was the light of 
men.'' But the apostles were images of Christ 
— bright and shining lights — his representatives 
upon earth : so are their successors. The ruling 
ministers, or bishops of the churches, are repre^ 
sented by the stars which Jesus holds in his 
hands, to intimate his mission of them, his care 
and protection of them, and the honour he has 
conferred on them — that from him, tvhose face 
shines as the sun in his strength, they derive their 
influence and lustre ; he holds them forth as the 
moral lights of the world, in the period of which 
it is said — The night is far spent, the day is at 
hand,'' Rom. xiii. 12; that they may shed their 
influences upon the Church, who, because of this 
privilege, are distinguished from all others by the 
appellation — Children of the light." 

To the very same purpose tends the designa- 
tion angels." The word Ay[eXoq signifies a 
messenger or legate. It is a title of oflice when 
applied to intellectual beings whom God employs 
as his messengers in providence ; and it also in- 
timates, they are persons of exalted power. It 
is also applied to the ruling elements of nature, 
by which Jehovah acts; whence," says Park- 
hurst, they are called his per senators, instruments 
of action, or visibility. Compare Heb. i. 6 with 
Psalm xcvii. 7 ; Heb. i. 7 with Psalm civ. 4, and 
other places." 

The title is applied to Jesus Christ the Lord; 
he is called, " The angel of the covenant" — The 
angel of his presence'^— The angel Jehovah'^ 



EPISCOPACY SUSTAINED BY SCRIPTURE. 103 

Jacob calls him, ' ' The angel who redeemed me from 
all eviiy But these terms or titles relate to him 
as the ruler of his Church — I tcill seiid,^^ said 
God to Moses, my aiigel before thee.^^ This angel 
was to be their protector, guide, and ruler, " the 
leader and commander of the people*"*^ Christ, as 
the head of his Church, is thus emphatically 
entitled an angel. Zech. i. 12 ; Rev. xi. 1. 

The term is also applied to those ministers 
who are ambassadors or legates of Christ; and 
whenever it is applied by God to any human 
beings, it signifies they are his representatives. 
As, then, the term, in its applications to spiritual 
agents, intimates rulers — as, in its application to 
the elements, it is given to the ruling elements — 
as, in its application to Christ the Saviour, it im- 
ports his office as ruler or head of the Church ; 
go analogy will require that, in its application to 
men, it should signify those who are Christ's 
personators, representatives, his images as rulers 
and governors of his Church, that is to say, 
bishops. 

These, Sir, are some of the reasons which 
have been by me most deliberately weighed and 
maturely reflected upon, and these afford me 
demonstration that Episcopacy is the only legiti- 
mate mode of Church government ; that, equally 
with the institutions of the Levitical economy, it 

is DIVINE IN ITS ORIGIN. 



LETTER Vila 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OF PRAYER PREFERABLE IN 
PUBLICK WORSHIP. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

Prayer is an essential part of divine worship — 
one of the principal exercises of religion. It is 
the highest act of homage which a creature can 
offer to his Creator. It is the noblest engage- 
ment in which an intelligent being can be em- 
ployed. It is the happiest privilege to which our 
nature can be raised, viz. to hold converse with 
the august and supreme Ruler of the universe. It 
is a duty of religion which includes almost every 
other, since it requires the exercise of humility, 
of faith, hope, and charity. It is an acknowledg- 
ment of all the perfections of Deity ; a recognition 
of our guiltiness, dependency, and need, and at 
the same time an expression of our confidence in 
him who is our Father in heaven.'''^ In fine, 
prayer is an assemblage of all the various acts of 
adoration, an epitome of all the different services 
of religion. 

On this account it is that Scripture lays so much 
stress on this one duty, so frequently enjoins it, 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OF PRAYER, &C. 105 

and by so many motives presses upon us its obli- 
gation. By prayer the Christian is characterized : 

Whoso invoketh the name of the Lord shall be 
saved.^^ Its performance is entitled a sacrifice: 

Let my prayer come before thee as incense^ and 
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice — 
so will we render unto thee the calves of our lips,^^ 
From his condescension in listening to our re- 
quests, Jehovah is distinguished from the idols 
of heathenism by this emphatic title : Thou that 
hearest prayer w^hilst, in fine, he has designated 
his sanctuary by a name derived from these pub- 
lick acts of devotion, as — The house of prayer .^^ 
— My house shall be called the house of prayer. 

This religious exercise constituted the most 
important part of the worship of the primitive 
Church, of w^hich we read — " they all continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication; and 
ever since, in Christian assemblies, it has been 
maintained, and is allowed to be, not only an 
integral part of divine worship, but beyond all 
others the most important* 

Now that which is so important ought to be 
done well; hence Scripture admonishes us not 
to offer unto God the sacrifice of fools,^^ — " Be not 
rash icith thy mouthy and let not thine heart be hasty 
to utter any thing before God ; for God is in heaven^ 
and thou upon earthy therefore let thy words be few.^^ 

That this duty may be rightly discharged, 
liturgical services have been compiled for the use 
of different churches by their respective bishops. 
But these formularies of prayers have heen^^ by 



106 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OF PRAYER 



some, greatly objected to; indeed there is no one 
thing towards which multitudes in our day, 
whether from education or prejudice, or some 
other motives, manifest a stronger disgust, than 
against the use of a liturgy or form of prayer. 
It becomes, then, a serious matter of inquiry 
amongst sober Christians, whether such preju- 
dices are well founded — whether such a mode of 
divine worship is suitable or improper. 

Many, indeed, of the most eminent non-confor- 
mists, both in former and latter times, have not 
altogether objected to a liturgical service. Thus 
the excellent Philip Henry, as is recorded in his 
life written by his son, conceived it his duty not 
to reject the formulary of the Anglican Church ; 
but when he could, he attended the service of the 
Episcopal Church of his country, and not only 
persuaded others to attend also, but prevailed 
on some Presbyterian ministers, by his argu- 
ments, to give the liturgy thereof their sanction. 
Dr. Watts, also an eminent Congregational di- 
vine, in a work of his, entitled " A Guide to 
Prayer,'' says of a form, Christ himself seems 
to have indulged it to his disciples in their infant 
state of Christianity. Luke xi. 18. I grant also, 
that sometimes the most improved saints may find 
their own wants and desires, and the frames of 
their ovv^n hearts, so happily expressed in the words 
of other men, that they cannot find better, and 
may, therefore, in a very pious manner, use the 
same, especially when they labour under a pre- 
sent deadness of spirit and great indisposition for 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP. 107 



the duty. It is also evident that many assistances 
may be borrowed, by younger and elder Chris- 
tians, from forms of prayer well composed, witjl- 
out the use of the whole form as a prayer; and if 
I may have leave to speak the language of a judi- 
cious author, who wrote some years ago, I would 
say with him, ' that forms may be useful, and in 
some cases necessary.' " — Watts'^ Guide, § iii. c. 1. 

In accordance wath these sentiments, he com- 
posed a variety of forms for the use of other per- 
sons. Dr. Doddridge did the same in his Rise 
and Progress, &c." In like manner, Matthew 
Henry, the expositor, not only wrote a work, 
entitled " A Method for Prayer," consisting of 
arrangements of Scripture expressions under a 
variety of heads ; but he also composed and pub- 
lished numerous forms for individuals and families ; 
for different circumstances, relations, and periods 
of human life. The same has been done by many 
others, both in ancient and modern times, and 
among various parties of Christians. 

The question, then, is not whether the use of a 
form of prayer be law ful, for this is conceded, but 
whether it be most expedient and suitable. 

That it is the most proper mode of publick 
worship, will appear from an examination into 
its utility, necessity, antiquity, and sanctions. 

Many and great are the advantages peculiar 
to a publick formulary of devotion. It admits of 
that due previous meditation and preparation 
by which the mind may be fitted for the solemn 



108 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OP PRAYER 



engagements of prayer ; so that, beforehand, we 
may have those affections awakened, which are 
to be expressed either in adoration, confession, 
petition, thanksgiving, or the other acts of devo- 
tion ; an advantage which cannot belong to an 
extempore prayer, inasmuch as we must previ- 
ously be ignorant what the prayer will be, whether 
it will suit our case or not — whether it will meet 
our religious views or not ; and such preparation 
is of great moment, if we would acquit ourselves 
suitably. Wise and skilful musicians will always 
tune their instruments before the concert begins. 

Forms, also, are better adapted to the spirit of 
LIGHT and INTELLIGENCE, by which our devotions 
should ever be characterized ; for prayer is the 
discourse of an intelligent creature with his God; 
not the mummery of ignorance, but high converse 
with the glorious Supreme. And as words are 
necessary to it, to fix the attention, to excite the 
zeal, and to interest the imagination and senses 
in these spiritual sacrifices, so ought the matter 
and words of the prayer to be thoroughly under- 
stood ; an advantage which frequently is wanted 
in extemporaneous prayer, as often not only is 
the meaning of the person who offers such prayer 
not perfectly comprehended till his sentence be 
finished, but sometimes there are things uttered, 
to which, after due consideration, we could not 
repeat the cordial Amen. The service which 
God requires, is a reasonable service"^^ — -we must 
pray with the understanding" as well as with 
the heart* 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP. 109 

Faith and confidence are no less necessary 
to enter into the temper, which is a condition 
absokitely necessary for the offering up of accept- 
able prayer — Let him ask in faiths notlmig doubt- 
^wg*," a disposition which differs most essentially 
from rashness and presumption. Now this temper 
cannot always be exercised with the extempo- 
raneous prayers of others; as, until the prayer 
be uttered, no one can exercise faith in regard to 
what shall be said ; and often is it the case, that 
in such prayers an attentive listener finds much 
to reject, much from which he is most conscienti- 
ously compelled to withhold his assent ; and hence, 
as every man will, in offering his extemporaneous 
prayers, speak according to the present state and 
feelings of his own mind, he may not only express 
himself in an ambiguous manner, or ''speak un- 
advisedly with his lips,^^ but he always will in his 
prayers give utterance to his own sentiments in 
doctrine, which may not unfrequently disagree 
from those of many of his hearers ; so that the 
faith requisite for the prayer '' to come up with 
acceptance before God^^'' is not in exercise; but 
such an objection cannot possibly be brought 
against a form which he foreknows. 

Equally important is it, that prayer should 
proceed from a spirit of integrity and up- 
rightness. Jehovah searcheth the hearts'^'' — he 
^* desireth truth in the imcard parts when these 
are wanting, he has declared, " When you stretch 
forth your hands ^ I will hide mine eyes; yea, when 
you make many prayers, I will not hear.^^ There 

10 



110 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OF PRAYER 



i»5 then, as every Christian will avow, who knows 
any thing of himself, reason to fear greatly upon 
this point : for as the heart is deceitful above all 
things as it imposes not only upon others, but 
also upon the man himself ; so it leads ofttimes to 
mistake the mere workings of animal passion 
for devout aspirations of souL The mere novelty 
or peculiarity of expression frequently so delights 
the fancy, and awakens the passions, as to afford 
pleasurable sensations, which, if they were duly 
scrutinized and brought to the unerring test, 
would prove to be neither more nor less than 
mere theatrical emotion; whilst, when this is Vr ant- 
ing, the extemporaneous prayer is generally ac- 
counted so dull, that it is painfully irksome ; its 
wearisome length is complained of. And every 
man lafiust admit, that he has seen sometimes a 
whole congregation sitting down in a state of 
fatigue, or waiting with anxious impatience, in 
such prayers, for their close — welcoming it, when 
at last it has arrived, with a smile of delight — and 
after the termination of the service, lamenting to 
each other the extreme tediousness and disgust 
they had previously felt. Thus, sincerity and up- 
rightness were absent ; a disadvantage by no 
means so likely to be attendant upon a well com- 
posed and previously knov^n liturgy. 

Nor is a serious and solemn temper of less 
moment. When we reflect on the greatness and 
awful majesty of the Being with whom we con- 
verse, together with the unspeakable importance 
of the engagement itself, it will be seen, that to 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP. Ill 



trifle in such an exercise, is not only to be guilty 
of the grossest folly ourselves, but also to offer 
the most daring insult to the dread Supreme 
But can there be seriousness and solemnity/ 
when, as is often the case, the people are dis 
tressed with the crude, undigested notions and 
expressions of him who, as the offerer of prayer, 
presents himself, as their mouth, to the Majesty 
of heaven, and when they feel either pity or con- 
tempt for his weakness ? Can there be serious- 
ness when the prayer is made the means, (and 
this is not uncommon,) by him who offers it, of 
displaying his talents, of uttering fine things, of 
showing his attainments in verbiage, of awaken- 
ing the admiration of his auditors, and, in fine, 
of converting the sacred desk into an arena of 
display and compensation, of amusing and grati- 
fying the auditory upon the one part, and receiv- 
ing, in exchange, their admiration and applause 
on the other ? Is there no da^iger lest he deceive, 
whilst amusing the silly and thoughtless, by such 
meretricious glare, to their utter undoing, and 
lest he himself, in snuffing up the gale of their 
applause, find, like Herod, that, in inhaling it, he 
may be drawing in the pestilence of eternal wrath ? 
Can any attitude be conceived of, either in minister 
or people, more unchristian ? 

" If angels tremble, 'tis at such a sight.'* 

In a word, can there be seriousness when the 
whole congregation is thrown into a titter, or their 



112 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OF PRAYER 



countenances overspread with a broad grin, at 
hearing the ridiculous thoughts and ludicrous 
expressions, which some well-meaning but silly 
persons sometimes utter ? and no man surely will 
have the hardihood to assert that such things are 
not sometimes witnessed. But a form of well 
composed prayer excludes all such occasions of 
levity, and is every way calculated to produce 
deep seriousness and solemnity of mind. 

Evidently, then, it is useful; it has peculiar 
advantages. Is it then intended to exclude and 
prohibit altogether extemporaneous prayer? By 
no means; there are circumstances in which it is 
highly proper. Upon this point Dr. Watts, (here 
introduced, because an authority to whom multi- 
tudes of dissenters bow,) in his Guide to Prayer," 
says: Some persons imagine that, if they use 
no form, they must always pray extempore, and 
without premeditation ; and aro ready to think 
that all free or con^^^eived prayer is extemporary. 
But these things ought to be distinguished. Con- 
ceived prayer is not when we have the words of 
our prayer formed beforehand to direct our 
thoughts, but we conceive the matter or sub- 
stance of our addresses to God first in our minds, 
and then put those conceptions into such expres- 
sions as we think ni vSt proper. Extemporary 
prayer is when we, without any reflection or me- 
ditation beforehand, address ourselves to God, 
and speak the thoughts of our hearts as fast as 
we conceive them. Now this is most properly 
done in that which is called ejaculatory prayer^ 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP. 113 



when we lift up our thoughts to God in short 
breathings of request or thanksgiving, in the 
midst of any common affairs of life." 

The same eminent divine, also, in the above 
mentioned work, not only advises premeditation, 
but pre-composition of prayers, to private Chris- 
tians, and especially to ministers. He tells them, 
" they should so prepare as if they expected no 
assistance in this work." But to quote his advice 
farther upon this point, would carry these letters 
to far too considerable a length. 

Still it may be asked, " Does not the use of a 
form straiten the Holy Spirit in his assistance in 
prayer ? To this it may be answered. What is 
the office of this " Spirit of grace and siipplica- 
iionV Surely none will contend that he inspires 
the prayers themselves; this would be to make 
him a lying spirit ^"^^ because it would be to attri- 
bute to him thousands of prayers and ideas which 
are uttered, not only in contradiction to each other, 
but in direct variance with revealed truth. Let 
Dr. Watts, who has so fully endeavoured to set 
forth the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer, and 
who, consequently, would not under-rate his gra- 
cious agency, be listened to upon this subject. 
He says : " Those persons expect too much from 
the Spirit in our day, who wait for all inclinations 
to pray from immediate dictates of the Spirit of 
God." — Who expect such aids of the Holy 
Spirit, as to make their prayers become the 
proper work of inspiration." — Who hope for 
auch influences of the Spirit, as to make their 

10* 



114 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OF PRAYER 



own Study and labours needless." Amongst many 
cautions which he gives, are the following : — 
Do not believe all manner of impulses, or urgent 
impressions of the mind, to proceed from the 
Spirit."—'' Do not expect the influences of the 
spirit of prayer should be so vehement as certainly 
to distinguish them from the motives of your own 
spirit." — " Do not make the gift of prayer the 
measure of your judgment of the spirit of prayer." 
— '' Do not expect the same measure of assistance 
at all times from the spirit of prayer," Thus far 
Dr. Watts. 

Whilst then it is admitted that the Holy Spirit 
does most graciously assist all true believers in 
this important duty, yet it is insisted that his as- 
sistance principally relates to the excitement of 
those hallowed affections which they need in it, 
and as the Spirit of illumination, by powerfully 
suggesting to us our necessities; and surely none 
will contend that he now inspires those prayers 
which may be extemporaneously uttered, else 
why does Dr. Watts exhort so much to study and 
pre-compose prayers I why press it as^ a duty upon 
Christians " to strive and labour after the gift 
of prayer?" Greatly important as in some in- 
stances may be extemporaneous prayer, a liturgy 
will still be found to possess, in public worship^ 
more decided advantages. 

A second argument for the employment of a 
liturgy, may be derived from necessity. 

The MEANNESS OF TALENT possessed by some 
ministers, render it needful th^t such helps should 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP. llo 

be afforded them for the edification of the Church, 
It is an old proverb, " Omne genus habet suum 
vulgum," (Every profession has its Httle men.) 
As then there is a great disparity in the endow- 
ments of mankind, as in every thing few only can 
excel; so, to guard against what is so common in 
most congregations, the bringing into contempt 
this most sacred exercise, a prescribed liturgy is 
rendered necessary. 

The EVER-VARYix\G FRAMES and feelings of 
men also require it. Since the best, the most 
learned and talented, sometimes find themselves 
in an unfit state of mind for such an exercise as 
extemporaneous prayer ; for, besides slight bodily 
ailments and contingencies of human life, there 
are many circumstances, such as the .weight and 
temperature of the atmosphere, some unaccount- 
able depression of spirits, extreme nervous excite- 
ment, together with other causes, which operate 
to unhinge the mind, as all must acknowledge ; 
indeed, those who are reputed to excel most in 
the gift of prayer, often are the first to admit it ; 
therefore^ in such cases, a liturgy must be highly 
necessary. 

The CORRUPTIONS AND DEPRAVITY of the hu- 
man heart no less enforce it. For as the excitement 
produced by a large assembly sometimes causes 
the minister to enlarge with great fluency, and 
produces much fervour of temper ; so does this 
frequently minister no small occasion to temptation 
—to spiritual pride and display. The pleasure 
felt by the ingenuity excited in such engagements, 



116 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OP PRAYER 



is very frequently mistaken for high communion 
with heaven, when, in fact, it is no other than a 
earnal pleasure, such as is experienced by the 
poet or the composer, whose eye is in a fine 
phrensy rolling." This has been lamented as a 
source of trouble in their self-examination, by 
men the most godly and talented ; they have 
confessed that it excited doubts in their minds 
relative to their true standing before God, since 
they seldom felt equal excitement and enlarge- 
ment in the private exercises of devotion. 

The DECENCIES AND ORDER OF PUBLiCK WOR- 
SHIP require it. It is acknowledged on all sides, 
that there are frequently many breaches in de- 
corum, arising from the crudities, to say the least 
of them, sometimes uttered in extemporaneous 
prayer, the ridiculous expressions sometimes vent^ 
ed, and, with some, the impertinent modes of 
address to the Deity, and also attempts at finery 
of language and display. There are serious 
persons, not only laymen, to whom an appeal 
could be made, (who cannot endure a liturgy,) who 
have often confessed that some eminently popular 
preachers in the present day, excite so much their 
utter loathing and disgust with their attempts at 
saying fine things, and uttering far-fetched words 
in their prayers, that, instead of feeling any thing 
akin to devotion in listening to such gaudy and 
meretricious performances, they only sin in going 
to listen to them at all. 

In fine, the unity of the faith requires it. 
There is no way in which a man can more easily 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP. 



117 



instruct his auditors in his peculiar tenets, than 
in extemporaneous prayer. Few persons in pub- 
hck possess, or, to say the least, exercise any 
other talent than what has been termed '^preach- 
ing prayer and when heterodox men w^ish in- 
sidiously to instill their sentiments upon religion, 
it will be found that in such a way they most 
effectually succeed. The fearful and pestilential 
heresies, now so widely prevalent, afford ample 
proof upon this subject. A liturgy prevents such 
a mode of teaching ; it secures the true knowledge 
of orthodox doctrines ; and the man in the pulpit 
will be afraid to give the lie to the man in the 
desk. 

Hence, most of the Reformed Presbyterian 
Churches have had liturgies compiled for them ; 
although, for the most part, they have sunk into 
desuetude. History informs us of a variety of 
different liturgies used in various churches from 
the earliest days of Christianity. Even the French 
and Dutch Churches had theirs. Calvin used a 
form of prayer himself, and composed one for the 
Sunday service, which was afterwards established 
at Geneva." — Beza Pre fat. ad Coin. Calv. in Job. 

In his letter to the Lord Protector, in the reign 
of Edward the Sixth he thus writes : — For so 
much as concerns the forms of prayers and eccle- 
siastical rites, I highly approve that it be deter- 
mined, so as it may not be lawful for the ministry 
in their administrations to vary from it."— >Ca/i;^'^, 
Epist. 87. 



118 



A PRESCRIPT FORM OP PRAYER 



Antiquity yields as another argument for a 
publick form of prayer. 

There are few religious prejudices which are 
stronger, or which take a firmer hold on the 
mind, than those which are derived from anti- 
quity; but all antiquity lends its sanction to a 
liturgical service. 

Not to say any thing of the Heathen world, in 
whose temples every scholar knows (hat they 
had prescribed forms of worship and prayers to 
their deities — not to mention these, the Jews, 
in their temples and synagogues, used prayers 
long previous to the advent of our Saviour, and 
they continue so to do even to this day. It is 
admitted, that many corruptions have crept into 
their liturgy ; but this does not invalidate the fact ; 
whilst it is remarkable, that the form of prayer 
which our Lord taught to his disciples, and which 
is generally entitled " The Lord's Prayer," was 
even as to its very words, taken from different 
parts of the Jewish liturgies. 

It is more than probable, that, even in the apos- 
tolick age, such forms obtained, as we no where 
meet any account of their first introduction into 
the Christian Church; and if sucJi an innovation 
had taken place, it is not at alllikely it would have 
occurred without opposition, and consequently 
notice would have been taken some where of it. 
There are still extant three Hturgies, which, 
though corrupt, are ascribed to St. Peter, St. 
Mark, and St. James. That of the latter was of 
great authority in the days of Cyril, who wrote a 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP, 



119 



commentary on it in the year 350. Augustine 
Tertullian, Clemens, and others, speak in their 
writings of these liturgies. Eusebius, in his Ec- 
clesiastical History, 1. 2. c. 17, tells us, that in 
their forms of prayer the Christians sung rerses 
responsive to one another." Nicephorus, lib. 
xiii. c. 28. derives the responses in the forms of 
prayers from Ignatius, so that, for the first three 
centuries of the Christian era, there is sufficient 
evidence they were in use, and to attempt to 
prove that the practice obtained subsequently, is 
needless, as no one conversant with history would 
attempt to dispute it. 

But what adds still further weight and import- 
ance to the usage, is the high sanction which has 
been given to it by the apostles themselves, who 
were in the habit of frequenting the synagox^-ues 
and proseuchse,^ as we repeatedly read in the 
Acts, joining with the Jews in the solemnities of 
their worship, and in which their liturgy was 
universally used. 

A sanction still higher than that of the apostles 
was added to it in the person of their Lord and 
Master, who not only frequented the synago^-ues 
during his earthly ministry, but who also compiled, 
from their very offices of devotion, that form of 
prayer which he taught to his disciples. 

In fine, the Holy Ghost has set the seal of his 
sanction upon it, not only by blessing it to the 
edification of the Church, and preserving thereby 

* Rendered by our translators, Places zchere prayer was wont to 
he made,*^ 



120 A PRESCRIPT FORM OF PRAYER 

the purity of its doctrine, but also by employing it 
for the awakening and conversion of many who 
have become truly devoted unto God. 

Such arguments, then, are sufficient to evince 
that a liturgy is of great importance in conduct- 
ing the publick worship of God. At the same 
time it deserves notice, that the greatest opposers 
of a liturgy use constantly a printed form or 
liturgy in verse, when singing ; and it certainly 
would be a difficult thing to show why any form 
should be better for publick worship when ar- 
ranged in metre, than when arranged in prose. 

Nor, in fine, should it be unnoticed, that a very 
considerable number of churches in England, which 
are, in their discipline and name, Congregational, 
have been so deeply convinced of the importance 
of a liturgy, that they constantly use that of the 
Anglican Church in the publick offices of their 
devotion. 

It is admitted that the constant use of a liturgy 
may tend, in some degree, (as is objected to it,) 
to produce something like formality in devotion. 
This is a disadvantage necessarily attendant upon 
a human composition, which cannot possibly com- 
bine in it every excellency and perfection. But 
then the choice is between the greater evils of 
extemporaneous prayer, and the minor inconve- 
nience which may result from the constant re- 
currence of the same words; an inconvenience 
from which extemporaneous prayer is not alto- 
gether exempt, so that the preponderancy of dis- 
advantage must be on the side of the latter. 



PREFERABLE IN PUBLICK WORSHIP. 121 

So deeply was the writer of these letters con- 
vinced of this truth, that for some years before 
he quitted his native land, (although he used, in 
addition, an extemporaneous prayer,) he regularly 
used, in the church over which he presided, the 
liturgical service of the Church of England. 



11 



I 



LETTER Vlll. 



SURPASSING EXCELLENCE OF THE AMERICAN 
EPISCOPAL LITURGY. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

The point being once established, that a liturgical 
service is of importance to the Church of Christ, 
it becomes a subject of interesting inquiry, which 
is that portion of the Church whose liturgy is the 
most appropriate, and distinguished by characters 
of the greatest excellency. An impartial exami- 
nation will not fail, in the view of the writer 
hereof, to result in attributing this meed of ap- 
probation to the American Episcopal Church. 
Undoubtedly, in this respect, she has attained 
the pre-eminence even over her mother, the An- 
glican Church, inasmuch as the formulary of the 
daughter has been depurated from those Httle 
imperfections, (as some have considered them,) 
which have adhered to that of the parent. Be 
this as it may, whatever is requisite to excite 
toward a liturgy our respect, and to claim for it 
our decided attachment and steady adherence, 
is in her formulary and Common Prayer to be 
found. 



SUEPASSING EXCELLENCE, &C. 123 

Are UNITY AND SOCIABILITY necessary charac- 
teristicks of publick worship ? In her services they 
are especially to be found. A temple carries with 
it the idea of a happy, harmonious, united society, 
meeting together in one point of attraction, in- 
fluenced by a community of interest, feeling, and 
hope; cemented together by the firmest bonds; 
improving, exalting, and refining the sweetest 
charities of the human bosom. Other engage- 
ments may draw mankind together ; commerce, 
pleasure, or various other motives; but no en- 
gagement will place them on so equal and im- 
portant a footing, unite them in relations so 
engaging, animate them with views so exalted 
and dignified, and assimilate or bind them to- 
gether so closely, as the publick services of 
religion. 

The closet is the place for secret converse with 
God, where the believer may be prepared for 
publick and social engagements. The church, 
however, is not the place for solitary, but social 
engagement ; there the joys of each are redoubled 
by participation ; there the rays of devotion are 
reflected from face to face, like those which 
emanated from the countenance of Moses when 
he held communion with God; there the zeal of 
each one adds fervour to that of his brethren; 
there the solitary ^' My Father and my God/' is 
exchanged for the social Our Father and our 
God," whilst the united prayers and praises, 
blending together, ascend like one stream of 
incense before the eternal throne. 



124 SURPASSING EXCELLENCE OF THE 



Hence, in this beautiful liturgy all the wor- 
shippers take their part ; every one is engaged ; 
instead of leaving it to their minister, as their 
proxy, to offer up for them alone the sacrifice ; 
the meanest, as well as the highest of the assembly, 
participates therein; the babe who can but lisp 
the praises of the Most High, as well as the 
hoary pilgrim whose head has been silvered o'er 
by time, all blend their voices in the solemn ex- 
ercise, and uttering their different parts and 
alternate responses, feel an equal interest in the 
same important engagements; presenting an im- 
age of that blissful state, when the multitude 

out of every nation j kindred^ and tongue ^'^^ offer 
their united homage^ — where, loud as the sound 
of many vi^aters and the voice of mighty thunder- 
ings, they tender one song of praise unto the 
slaughtered Lamb. 

Are SIMPLICITY and plainness necessary 
characteristicks of publick worship ? Where can 
we find any thing more artless ? Rhetoricians will 
tell us, that the very first perfection of language is 
its clearness ; and surely if this excellency ought 
any where to be found, it should be in such a 
service. Its expression should be adapted to the 
meanest capacity ; yet its language should be so 
conceived as to be rich and magnificent, and 
suited to the subject; so easy, that those who are 
least versed in the school of Christ may, without 
difficulty, comprehend it ; and yet so dignified, that 
it may not debase the most glorious and exalted 
conceptions. And is not this the case in this 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL LITURGY. 125 

liturgy? In it we meet no words adorned with 
studied elequence — no magnificent metaphors 
dazzHng the fancy— the ear is not dehghted by 
the highly wrought harmony of well cadenced 
periods — the mind is not diverted by the brilliancy 
of far-fetched thoughts — all is noble, without af- 
fectation — all is simple, without being mean: on 
one part, the addresses to the Most High are 
worthy the power and the love of the God whom 
we adore ; and on the other part, all the expres- 
sions are suited to the condition of the fallen and 
repentant creature, who is too deeply penetrated 
with a sense of his condition to be in too much 
concern about the words he employs — it is the 
language of the heart, which speaks by the mouth 
— it is the earnestness of the simple soul,, which 
gives utterance to its desires — it is not the elo- 
quence of sentences, but of feeling — it is '^the cry 
of faith to the ear of mercy." 

Are WISDOM and comprehensiveness neces- 
sary chracteristicks of a publick service? Here, 
then, shall we find them; since there is nothing 
which can possibly constitute our converse with 
God, but is here expressed. What sins can we 
be chargeable with, but in it are confessed ? What 
lust torment us, but in it is deplored? What evil 
can we dread, but in it is deprecated? What 
blessing can we desire, but in it is acknowledged? 
What hope can we cherish, but in it is uttered ? 
In a word, there is no situation in which we can 
be placed, no character or relation we can sustain, 
no difficulty we may encounter, no affliction we 

11* 



126 



SURPASSING EXCELLENCE OF THE 



may experience, no burden under which we may 
groan, but we find language therein in which our 
complaint is vented before God. There is no 
desire we can cherish, whether for time or eter- 
nity — for pardon, for peace> for purity, but is 
thereby presented before God. There is no 
pleasurable delight we can experience, whether 
of temporal prosperity or spiritual joy, but we 
have language put into our lips suited to our case. 
It seems as if the wisdom of the best and holiest 
of men had been concentrated to construct this 
beauteous liturgy; as if, like Solomon of old, who 
brought from Paros its marble, from Lebanon its 
cedars, from Ophir its gold, from Egypt its linen, 
from India its jewels, from Arabia its perfume, 
from Tyre its purple and its workmen^ and in- 
deed from all the world its choicest materials, to 
construct and embellish a magnificent temple : it 
seems as if, like him, the compilers of this liturgy 
had searched every clime and country, had ex- 
amined every case and condition of mankind, and 
then that from all, and for all, they had con- 
structed this apt, symmetrical, and comprehensive 
service, for the temple of Messiah. 

Are BREVITY AND CONCISENESS necessary char- 
acteristicks of a publick ritual? These are also 
here. In all forms af language, conciseness is 
desirable, but especially in the addresses we pre- 
sent to Almighty God. If we would avoid the 
defects which are inevitable to mortality, our 
prayers should be short. Little do they know of 
the nature of the human mind, who suppose that 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL LITURGY. 



127 



it is capable of maintaining long those abstractions 
which call it away from earth, and which carry 
it toward heaven. Our senses and inclinations 
too heavily gravitate to this world, to permit a 
long and vigorous flight toward eternal objects. 
We constantly complain of distractions — we are 
interrupted perpetually, like Abraham, by those 
flights of birds which hover around and pollute 
our sacrifices — we are too fastly chained to the 
cumbrous loads of mortality and sense, to obtain 
many minutes for a continuous effort in prayer — 
we groan under the languors beneath which we 
struggle, and v*^e long for deliverance. But for 
these imperfections, a remedy is provided in the 
brevity of these addresses to the throne of grace* 
Our weakness, our languors, our distractions, are 
provided for by the shortness of the exercises and 
the recurrence of the topics ; what is wanting in 
length, is made up for ih frequency. The con- 
ciseness of the prayers, facilitate our devotions : 
they become, each one, a sort of resting-place, so 
that we ascend from step to step of this sacred 
ladder which unites earth with heaven. 

Are VARIETY AND DIVERSITY necessary charac- 
teristicks for a liturgical service ? Here may we 
find them. In nature we are delighted with the 
diversity which every where obtains, and this in- 
cessant variation adds to its beauty, and enhances 
the pleasure with which we gaze upon every scene. 
One uniform monotonous prospect would speedily 
tire and fatigue us. Hence, the Creator, to re- 
lieve and to gratify us, has caused hills and vallies 



128 



SURPASSING EXCELLDNGE OP THE 



to intersect each other ; he has covered the earth 
with trees, and shrubs, and plants, and flowers, 
endlessly differing in variety and beauty ; he has 
chequered the whole with lights and shadows ; 
he has instituted the succession of day and night, 
and caused the seasons perpetually to alternate : 
thus he relieves our tedium, and exhilarates our 
hearts. In like manner, the compilers of this 
excellent liturgy seem deeply to have been ac- 
quainted with our nature, and to have studied, 
for imitation, the works of Deity. They have so 
constructed it, that, whilst its addresses to Al- 
mighty God are so brief that they do not tire, and 
so comprehensive that they take in all our circum- 
stances ; they are so diversified, that they relieve 
us, and lead gradually on from one part of devo- 
tion to another — from the expression of one desire 
to another — from the acknowledgment of one 
mercy to another— from the contemplation and 
adoration of one attribute to another ; in fine, 
from the deepest abasement of humility to the 
highest exultation of hope. Nor are these tran- 
sitions sudden, broken, or precipitate ; but gentle 
and easy, like the colours of the rainbow, dye 
melting into dye — like the perspective of a land- 
scape, shade melting into shade. It has thrown 
all around it all the beauty and charms of exqui- 
site variety. 

Are SPIRITUALITY AND SANCTITY necessary 
to characterize a publick formulary ? In this the 
liturgy pr€-eminently abounds. So replete is it 
with Scripture, that the beautiful psalmody of the 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL LITURGY. 



129 



ancient temple is perpetually vibrating in its me- 
lodies— that the whole record of divine revelation, 
in the very words of their inspired writers, are in 
the course of the year brought into the audience 
of the people — that the great object of all its ad- 
dresses to Deity refer to the immortal spirit, or 
to temporal affairs only in subserviency to it. If, 
to render our emotions spiritual, they should be 
regulated by a sense of our condition^ the liturgy 
leads us to the most deep and pungent acknow- 
ledgments of our guilt and misery, in the language 
of its confessional and prayers. If, to render our 
devotions spiritual, they should be regulated by 
tJie grandeur of our interests, where shall we find 
prayers more wise and suitable? — no petition is 
breathed for those riches of earth which so dazzel 
the eyes, and bewilder the mind, and corrupt the 
heart ; no petition is breathed for those sensua,! 
enjoyments which captivate the senses and de- 
grade the soul ; no petition is breathed for the 
pomps, and glories, and dignities of this world, of 
which the pageant passeth away'''' — they refer only 
to the things which are unseen and eternaV — to 
pardon, and purity, and meetness for the inherit- 
ance above. If, to render our prayers spiritual, 
they should be regulated by the genius of the Gos^ 
pel, which requires detachment from the world, 
moderation in our desires, and exalted sanctity 
of mind, to what else tends the liturgy in its ex- 
hortations, its rites, its hymns, its praises, and its 
prayers, but " to mahe clean our hearts vjithin usT^ 
If, to render our devotions spiritual, they should 



130 SURPASSING EXCELLENCE OF THE^ 



be regulated^ by ilie divine promises — if the will of 
God should be the rule of our requests and de- 
sires — does not the liturgy ground all its petitions 
and services upon this very foundation ? Does it 
not remind God of his promises, when it tells 
him, he " hath declared that he desireth not the 
death of the mz/i^r"— that he hath promised that 
tvhere two or three are gathered together in his name^ 
he will hear their requestsV^ Does it not uniformly 
urge, as the ground of hope and confidence, the 
merits and mediation of the Redeemer ? If, in 
fine, to render our devotions spiritual, they should 
be regulated by the character of God, does not 
the liturgy, in its use, bring before us every per- 
fection and attribute by which he is adorned ? 
Does it not express every emotion of spirit to 
which that attribute lays claim — of fear, of re- 
verence, of esteem, of humility, of confidence, of 
gratitude, fidelity, and love ? It magnifies him 
as the Being in whom unite every excellency ; 
who ought alone to possess all the allegiance of 
our hearts, and who, as the rightful Sovereign of 
all creatures, sits enthroned in inconceivable glory 
upon the riches of the universe. 

Are FERVOUR and pathos necessary charac- 
teristicks of a publick formulary ? No composition 
can surpass the liturgy in this respect ; there is 
in every prayer something that is exquisitely 
touching. Some of them are peculiarly earnest 
and impassioned, whilst the litany breathes a 
devotion so intense, that it is impossible for lan- 
guage to express more strongly the agony of a 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL LITURGY. 131 

soul who wrestles in prayer. In its confessions 
it expresses a spirit of penitential sorroiOy giving 
utterance to the deep humility and poignant an- 
guish of a broken heart. In its petitions it ex- 
presses a spirit of holy desire panting for a sense 
of pardoned guilt, a spirit of decided preference 
for the blessings of religion, a spirit of himible 
submission to the appointments of Providence. 
In its sacred hymns it expresses a spirit of zeal 
for the divine glory, anxious that all creatures 
may be united in celebrating his praise. In its 
intercessions it expresses a spirit of charity^ sup- 
plicating blessings not only upon the Church at 
large, but also upon all mankind. A sacred fervour 
pervades the whole, not the wild fire of fanaticism, 
but of sober, serious piety ; it resembles not a fire 
of straw blazing with fury, and as transient too, 
but the sacred flame kindled from on high on the 
altar of the tabernacle, pure, steady, and con- 
stant, ascending acceptably unto God. 

Are ORDER AND DISTRIBUTION necessary cha- 
racteristicks of a publick formulary ? Impossible 
is it that a liturgy could be better arranged or 
more naturally formed ; commencing with an ac- 
knowledgment of our misery and guilt before the 
throne of the divine Majesty — proceeding with a 
comfortable ministerial publication of the divine 
mercy to the penitent — this again followed Vv^ith 
prayer and animated praise — these engagements 
succeeded by lessons from both the Old and New 
Testaments, each of which, in turn, is followed 
by hymns of thanksgiving— ^then the publick and 



13S SURPASSING EXCELLENCE OF THE 

solemn avowal of our belief — then a succession of 
brief and comprehensive prayers, with the litany 
enkindling at every step still higher feelings, till, 
at length, the overflowing heart vents itself in 
charitable intercessions and gratulatory acknow- 
ledgments to " the Giver of all good. Blind in- 
deed, and insensible to whatever is orderly and 
beautiful, must he be, who does not admire this 
arrangement and disposition. It is the very 
thing which rhetoricians declare to be at once so 
charming and yet so difficult to accomplish— a 
regular and happy climax. It is an imitation of 
the volume of divine revelation itself, in which 
the mind is led up, by gradations, from con- 
templating the misery of a fallen world, to enter 
with the seer of the Apocalypse into the visions 
of God. 

Are CEREMONIES AND OBSERVANCES necessary 
characteristicks of a publick formulary? This 
they must be, since a worship which is solely 
spiritual, and which does not partake of corporeal 
forms and rites, would be unsuited to our present 
state. To an invisible world it may be adapted, 
but not to merely human beings. We are com- 
pound creatures. We are constructed of earthly, 
as well as heavenly materials ; of body, as well as 
of spirit. Our only knowledge of spiritual objects 
is obtained by means of those which are corporeal ; 
hence, to be suited to our nature, a sanctuary 
service must have signs, and symbols, and ordi- 
nances. This is evident, also, from the very in- 
stitutions and sacraments of our Lord; besides 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL LITURGT^. 133 

by the actions of our body, the spirit expresses its 
sentiments and feelings, as well as by words. 
Philosophers have therefore called actions, na- 
tural language; but words they have designated, 
artificial language. Our inward emotions will 
ever discover themselves by our exterior gesture 
and conduct. Justly, therefore, has the Church 
enlisted into her liturgical service, the body, as 
well as the spirit, and required its posture to be 
altered according to the nature of the service in 
which we engage : enjoining especially, that in 
the more humble and adoring services with genu- 
flections we should appear in the divine presence. 
This posture Scripture represents as the most 
befitting for adoration and invocation. By Isaiah 
Jehovah speaks, and says, I have sworn by myself, 
and the word is gone out of my mouthy that to me 
every knee shall bow.^^ In like manner St. Paul 
tells us of the Saviour, that at his name every 
knee should bow whilst David says, O come, let 
ns worship and kneel, let us bow before the Lord our 
Maker^ St. Paul tells the Ephesians that this 
was his practice — " For this cause I bow my knee 
to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;'' 
whilst the example of the Master himself, in 
Gethsemane, should be a warrant for every 
Christian. 

Are— but whither am I going ? Already are 
these letters swoln to too great an extent, and 
time would fail me to set forth the sublimity and 
grandeur of some of its compositions, the beauty 
of its apostrophes, the energy of its pleadings, 

12 



134 



SURPASSING EXCELLENCE OF THE 



with other excellencies, which stud this galaxy of 
light, this stream of mild and lovely radiancy 
which leads to upper and to better worlds. In- 
deed it is not easy adequately to set forth the 
excellencies of this composition, in which the 
Church may exult and say, in grateful praise to 
God, Thou hast given a banner to them that fear 
tJiee^ that it may he displayed because of thy triith.^^ 
These, Sir, are some of the many reasons of my 
conformity to the Church of which yon are a Pre- 
late ; a Church which appears to me to be destined 
to a work of high eminence and distinction in ad- 
vancing the glorious cause of the Redeemer ; to 
maintain, amidst desolating heresies and fanati- 
cism, the purity of the faith; and to reclaim 
wanderers to the fold of " the great Shepherd of 
the sheep.^^ 

Amidst the convulsions of the moral world, the 
contending elements of human passions, and the 
gigantick march of infidelity and heresy, I think I 
see her rise, not like that frightful and heteroge- 
neous image which, in his dreams, presented 
itself before the emphrensied imagination of Ne- 
buchadnezzar, whose head was of gold, whose 
breast was of silver, whose thighs were of brass, 
and whose legs were of iron and perishable clay ; 
beneath whose frown nations should wither, but 
with whose downfall the universe should resound, 
^no! I think I see her rise like some majestick 
watch-tower founded upon the Rock of Ages, and 
holding forth, amidst the night of moral darkness, 
^' the light of life^^ to the mariner, buffeted and 



AMERICAN EPISCOPAL LITURGY. 135 

tempest-tossed on the sea of time — like that lofty 
mountain upon whose summit reposed the ark, 
beneath whose base- the mightiest monarchies 
have mouldered into ruins, and around whose 
summit eternity might play ; or, rather hke that 
blessed tree beheld by the seer of the Apocalypse, 
in the visions of the Almighty, whose root was 
watered by " the river of imter of life^^'^ yielding 
its fruit every months and shedding its leaves for the 
healing of the nations.^'' She may, indeed, be as- 
sailed by the sneers of the infidel, the malignity of 
the bigot, and the persecutions of the ungodly ; but 
against her the gates of hell shall not premilf'^ 
to her justly may be applied the language, other- 
wise unsuitably employed, of a Heathen poet, that 
she stands 

Monumentum eere perennius, 

Regalique situ Pyramidum altius : 
Q,uod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens 
Possit diruere, ant innumerabilia 
Annorum series, et fuga temporum^ " 

Horace. 



CONCLUDING LETTER. 



Right Rev. and dear Sir, 

In the preceding letters I have laid before you, 
with as much brevity as possible, the principal 
reasons vdiich have enforced upon my mind the 
conviction that Episcopacy is the divinely ap- 
pointed mode of government of the Church of 
Christ. In presenting to you this detail, I have 
purposely omitted many arguments of less mo- 
ment, leading to the same conclusion, only lest I 
should swell this little work to what might per- 
haps be considered an unreasonable magnitude. 
Especially, in so doing, have I passed by an 
argument which might be adduced from the ana- 
logy subsisting between all the works of God, 
and which strikes me as affording, if not de- 
monstration, at least something like presumptive 
evidence, upon the subject under review. 

Some theologians have undertaken to demon- 
strate the truth of divine revelation from the 
analogy subsisting between it and the other pro- 
ductions of its divine Author; and although I 
have never yet seen any argument in favour of 
Episcopacy derived from the same source, yet it 
strikes me that such an argument would tend 



CONCLUDING LETTER. 



731 



strongly to its support; and much should I Uketo 
see the subject handled by a better pen than mine, 
as I anticipate such an argument would tend 
deeply to strengthen my convictions, that parity 
is utterly unknown in all the works of Deity. 

There are certain characteristick features 
which mark the works of every being, so that, by 
careful examination of each production, we may 
ascertain its author. Thus a Grecian statuary 
would, in looking at a group of figures, select 
the performance of each individual author; he 
would say. This is a Phidias, and that is a Praxi- 
teles. A connoisseur, in examining a gallery of 
paintings, would say. This is a Guido, and that a 
Raphael or a Titian. A poet will easily discern 
between a drama of Shakspeare and one of Ad- 
dison's. History tells us of a painter at Athens, 
who one day called to see another artist, but as 
he was not at home, the servant requested him 
to leave his name ; upon which, taking in his hand 
the painter's pencil, he drew a line upon his 
canvass, Tell your master," said he to the 
servant, " that it was the man who drew this 
line that called to see him." On his return, the 
painter needed no further information. I know," 
said he, who it was, for only one man exists 
who could draw such a line." 

Upon this principle men are accustomed to 
reason in arguing* upon the productions of human 
skill, and the mode of reasoning is allowed to be 
valid. Upon the same principle has it been con- 
tended, that the book which professes to have God 

13* 



138 



CONCLUDING LETTER, 



for its author, is the product of his inspiration. It 
is contended, that, possessing characters of resem- 
blance to the works of nature and the dispen- 
sations of Providence, revelation is by analogy 
evinced to be from God. And surely if Phidias 
could so construct the shield of Minerva that all 
who gazed upon it must see that by his art the 
sculptor had engraved his own likeness thereon, 
it cannot be strange that Jehovah should so im- 
press his own image upon all his works, as that 
universally it must be seen. 

But no where, in all the works of Deity, do we 
perceive any thing like parity. Endless variety 
and interminable gradations every where exist. 
From the brightest intellectual spirit, who bows 
before the awful splendour of the eternal throne, 
down to the little glow-worm that kindles its 
glimmering taper under the hedge, nay. down to 
the minutest animalcule of creation, which escapes 
our unaided vision, there is an unbroken concaten- 
ation of links ; yet all existing in different grada- 
tions, according to the appointment of the Su^- 
preme Ruler of the universe. Amongst all the 
animated creatures of this world, which exist in 
a state of society, whether irrational or rational, 
there are various orders and degrees, officers and 
rulers. Revelation tells us the same of the hea- 
venly world ; it represents the angels as existing 
in different degrees of subordination ; it describes 
them as " thrones and dominions, principalities 
and power s.^^ Whilst Clemens Alexandrinus,-— 
Aretas, in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, 



CONCLUDING LETTER. 



139 



and St. Irenaeus, (as quoted by Du Bosc,) and 
others of the first and oldest teachers of Chris- 
tianity, speak much of the celestial hierarchy — of 
their diflferent orders, offices, names, and degrees 
of authority and rule, so that nothing like parity 
is to be found in that upper world. 

The system of parity, then, for which some so 
vehemently contend in the Church, bears no ana- 
logy to the other appointments of Deity: and 
this fact affi^rds something like presumption that 
it was not by him appointed. But upon this I 
have only glanced, being fully aware that, had I 
adduced it as an argument, it would have been 
selected by the enemies of Episcopacy, not only 
to the disparagement, but neglect, of the power- 
ful testimonies I have adduced. 

I trust that I have not indulged in any thing 
like unhallowed feeling in the temper which cha- 
racterizes these letters ; my opposition has been 
to opinions, not to men. For my brethren of the 
Presbyterian Church I have cherished, and will 
still cherish, the warmest and most affectionate 
regard; I shall ever love their persons, though I 
maybe compelled, from conviction, to differ from 
their sentiments. There are some with whom I 
have the happiness to be acquainted, whom I es- 
teem for their virtues, and revere for their piety; 
who cordially vvelcamed me on my arrival in this 
country, opened to me their pulpits, and, by many 
expressions of regard, made me feel that I was 
not in a land of strangers, but at home. Such 
men I shall never cease to love, and can only 



140 



CONCLUDING LETTER. 



regret that upon this point (a point to me of no 
minor importance) we cannot see eye to eye*'* 

If of the writings of one individual I have 
spoken in terms which may to some appear too 
strong, allow me to say I have of him no personal 
knowledge, and consequently entertain towards 
him no personal ill-wiil. I never heard his 
name till I became acquainted with his writings. 
But when I saw such unfairness in his quota- 
tions, such gross misrepresentations of historical 
facts, such needless vituperation of his opponents, 
(who to me seemed writing, if with warmth, yet 
not without courteousness,) that by this ruse de 
guerre^^ he might awaken the sympathies of his 
Presbyterian readers, of whom he knew not one 
in a hundred would ever read the opposite party's 
statements, I confess I felt it my duty to speak 
plainly upon the subject. If Moses felt indignant 
at witnessing the misconduct of Aaron in the 
matter of the golden calf — -if a greater than he 
expressed a similar feeling at the desecration of 
the temple — ^if Protestants all join in expressions 
of indignation at the impositions of the Romish 
clergy, which have been called pious frauds^'' 
then I cannot think I have acted unchristianly in 
speaking, in the softest terms which honesty 
would allow, of one who, if he be a learned man, 
should never have so misrepresented facts ; or if 
he be not, should not so dogmatically have pre- 
tended to be master of the subject. 

Fully am I av/are that the majority of Presby- 
terians have never examined impartially both 



CONCLUBINa LETTER. 



141 



sides of the question. I speak from experience. 
Never, till my arrival in this country, had I fully 
done so myself. I have conversed with many of 
the laity among Presbyterians in this country, 
who have read the works of the Presbyterian ad- 
vocates referred to in these letters, and who have 
told me how triumphantly they refuted their op- 
ponents; yet not one of whom, upon seriously 
questioning them, but admitted to me they had 
never read a single work on the opposite side. 
Perhaps I should not err, if I said also, that very 
many of the clergy, in this respect, closely resem- 
ble them. And this I say, not by way of reproach 
to them, for well I know they consider (as once 
the writer did,) that it would be time lost to ex- 
amine the arguments adduced by the opponents 
of a system which they fully believe to be divinely 
instituted ; they act from the deep convictions of 
their consciences. Whilst, then, I also most con- 
scientiously withdraw myself from their commu- 
nion, still will I enshrine their names in my heart, 
— I will hail them as my fellow-Christians, — I 
will rejoice in their success in winning souls from 
the common enemy, and directing them to Christ? 
as the alone Saviour, I will take as mine, the 
motto of an ancient bishop :— 

" In necessariis, UiNitas; in non necessa- 
riis, libertas ; in omnibus, charitas." in 
things necessary, unity; in things unnecessary, 
liberty ; in all things, charity. 



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